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

Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) dropped 1.5% on Friday . The company traded as low as $634.57 and last traded at $639.77. Approximately 12,270,848 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 28% from the average daily volume of 17,058,867 shares. The stock had previously closed at $649.81.

Key Headlines Impacting Meta Platforms

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

META has been the subject of a number of research reports. Oppenheimer lowered Meta Platforms from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Raymond James Financial decreased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $825.00 to $800.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 26th. Evercore increased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $875.00 to $900.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Guggenheim boosted their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $850.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $800.00 price objective (up from $770.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have given a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $845.50.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 1.5%

The company has a quick ratio of 2.60, a current ratio of 2.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $658.31 and a 200-day simple moving average of $693.94. The stock has a market cap of $1.62 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.22, a PEG ratio of 1.14 and a beta of 1.28.

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

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 517 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $663.19, for a total transaction of $342,869.23. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 9,098 shares in the company, valued at $6,033,702.62. The trade was a 5.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 519 shares of the firm’s 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 completion of the sale, the insider owned 28,658 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,876,738.02. The trade was a 1.78% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 39,078 shares of company stock valued at $24,016,453. 13.61% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Meta Platforms

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of META. Bay Colony Advisory Group Inc d b a Bay Colony Advisors increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 0.4% in the second quarter. Bay Colony Advisory Group Inc d b a Bay Colony Advisors now owns 3,506 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,587,000 after acquiring an additional 13 shares during the period. Hemington Wealth Management boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms by 0.6% during the second quarter. Hemington Wealth Management now owns 2,223 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,641,000 after purchasing an additional 14 shares in the last quarter. Trust Co of the South grew its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Trust Co of the South now owns 1,850 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,359,000 after purchasing an additional 14 shares during the period. Sentinel Pension Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter. Sentinel Pension Advisors LLC now owns 915 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $672,000 after buying an additional 14 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alpine Bank Wealth Management lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Alpine Bank Wealth Management now owns 4,301 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $3,159,000 after buying an additional 14 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Meta Platforms

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.