Virtus Wealth Solutions LLC Has $18.87 Million Stock Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Virtus Wealth Solutions LLC raised its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 29.5% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 25,694 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,858 shares during the period. Meta Platforms comprises about 3.6% of Virtus Wealth Solutions LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 8th largest position. Virtus Wealth Solutions LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $18,869,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in META. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 192,591,101 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $142,149,566,000 after purchasing an additional 1,532,568 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.9% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 86,925,674 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $64,158,971,000 after purchasing an additional 1,650,435 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 1.3% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 51,575,209 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $37,902,948,000 after purchasing an additional 682,768 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Meta Platforms in the second quarter valued at approximately $23,155,393,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 14,489,621 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $10,694,644,000 after buying an additional 262,550 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Trending Headlines about Meta Platforms

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

• Positive Sentiment: Signed a multiyear AI content-licensing deal that gives Meta paid access to News Corp content for training and retrieval — supports AI product quality and reduces legal/quality risk around training data. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Announced a new applied AI engineering organization (flat structure to speed model development) and an applied AI unit to accelerate model work — signals faster product development and continued R&D investment behind AI-driven ad and product monetization. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and pundits highlight Meta’s ability to monetize AI across its large user base (including tests of AI shopping tools) — reinforces revenue upside from higher engagement and ad yield. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Company presented at the Morgan Stanley TMT conference — useful for analyst color but not an immediate catalyst. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Valuation reviews note Meta’s scale, margins and recent cooling in short-term returns — provides context for positioning but is not a day-specific driver. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: MarketBeat and others point out heavy institutional buying even as insiders sell — suggests professional investors remain constructive despite headline noise. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Indonesia issued a “stern warning” over disinformation and gambling content and is pushing for greater algorithm transparency — represents regulatory and content-moderation risk in a large market. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Separately, Indonesian officials publicly urged Meta to increase algorithm transparency, adding reputational and compliance pressure that could lead to operational or policy costs. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Facebook experienced user outages in the U.S. this week — short-term engagement and ad-impression risk and a reminder of operational vulnerability. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Large insider sales disclosed: CFO Susan Li sold ~56,571 shares (~$36.5M) and COO Javier Olivan also sold shares — executed via SEC filings; while often tax/plan-driven, such sales can create short-term selling pressure and feed negative headlines. Read More. Read More.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 56,571 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $644.70, for a total value of $36,471,323.70. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 580 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $639.18, for a total value of $370,724.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 5,007 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,200,374.26. This trade represents a 10.38% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 160,927 shares of company stock valued at $103,155,254. Insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently issued reports on META. Rothschild & Co Redburn set a $900.00 target price on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Monday, January 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $825.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $872.00 price target (up from $830.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $700.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Robert W. Baird increased their target price on Meta Platforms from $815.00 to $830.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have given a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $844.44.

Meta Platforms Price Performance

META opened at $667.73 on Thursday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $479.80 and a 1 year high of $796.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 2.60 and a quick ratio of 2.60. The company has a market capitalization of $1.69 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.41, a P/E/G ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.30. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $655.49 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $682.65.

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

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

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

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.