Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) Shares Down 1.5% – Time to Sell?

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)’s share price traded down 1.5% during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as low as $634.57 and last traded at $639.77. 12,270,848 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 28% from the average session volume of 17,058,867 shares. The stock had previously closed at $649.81.

More Meta Platforms News

Here are the key news stories impacting Meta Platforms this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square disclosed an approximately $2 billion (~10% of the fund) stake in Meta, a high‑profile institutional endorsement that supports the AI-growth thesis and can attract other buyers. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Meta announced a quarterly cash dividend of $0.525/share (payable March 26), signaling capital-return discipline that can appeal to income-focused investors. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst and market commentary remain bullish: Seeking Alpha and other outlets profile META as undervalued on forward P/E and strong ad metrics, and DBS reiterated a buy with a $1,000 target — these views support upside expectations. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Insider activity: COO Javier Oliván sold 517 shares (~$343k). The ongoing small, scheduled sales by executives look like routine liquidity rather than a strategic red flag. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Sector signals: Pinterest’s earnings cited ad headwinds, a datapoint that can influence sentiment for ad-dependent peers like Meta but doesn’t directly change Meta’s fundamentals. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Russia removed WhatsApp from an official directory, effectively blocking the service for ~100M users there — a meaningful user/access disruption that could modestly dent engagement and revenue in that market. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Privacy/regulatory risk rose after reports Meta plans facial‑recognition features (“Name Tag”) for its smart glasses — a development likely to trigger scrutiny, user pushback and political opposition that can weigh on sentiment. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Reality Labs remains a material drag: coverage highlights widened Q4 operating losses (~$6B) for the unit, keeping pressure on near-term margins and cash flow despite early VR/AI hardware promise. Read More.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently commented on META. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $860.00 target price (up previously from $750.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Meta Platforms from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, November 1st. Pivotal Research cut their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $930.00 to $910.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $810.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, KeyCorp dropped their price target on Meta Platforms from $875.00 to $835.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 26th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have assigned a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $845.50.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $1.62 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.22, a PEG ratio of 1.14 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a current ratio of 2.60, a quick ratio of 2.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $658.31 and a 200 day moving average price of $693.94.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 28th. The social networking company reported $8.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $8.16 by $0.72. The business had revenue of $59.89 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $58.33 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.61% and a net margin of 30.08%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 23.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $8.02 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 16th will be given a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 16th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is currently 8.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 580 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $618.28, for a total value of $358,602.40. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 5,587 shares in the company, valued at $3,454,330.36. This represents a 9.40% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 519 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $658.69, for a total transaction of $341,860.11. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 28,658 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,876,738.02. This represents a 1.78% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 39,078 shares of company stock valued at $24,016,453 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meta Platforms

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 3.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 199,995,630 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $132,015,115,000 after purchasing an additional 7,269,279 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 5.1% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 90,841,345 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $59,963,463,000 after buying an additional 4,395,763 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 52,806,712 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $34,734,628,000 after buying an additional 878,396 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 39,558,637 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $26,112,735,000 after buying an additional 310,947 shares during the period. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised its stake in Meta Platforms by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 37,553,102 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $24,788,429,000 after buying an additional 823,883 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Company Profile

Meta Platforms, Inc (NASDAQ: META), formerly Facebook, Inc, is a global technology company best known for building social networking services and immersive computing platforms. Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Menlo Park, California, the company operates a family of consumer-facing products and services that connect users, creators and businesses. In October 2021 the company rebranded as Meta to reflect an expanded strategic focus on augmented and virtual reality technologies alongside its social media businesses.

Meta’s core consumer products include Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, which enable social networking, messaging, content sharing and community building across mobile and desktop devices.