Watershed Private Wealth LLC Buys 1,206 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. $META

Watershed Private Wealth LLC increased its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 19.7% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 7,325 shares of the social networking company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,206 shares during the period. Meta Platforms comprises approximately 1.5% of Watershed Private Wealth LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 17th biggest holding. Watershed Private Wealth LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $4,835,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. Guyasuta Investment Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 4.8% in the 4th quarter. Guyasuta Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 28,191 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $18,609,000 after buying an additional 1,292 shares in the last quarter. Visionary Horizons LLC grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 9.7% in the 4th quarter. Visionary Horizons LLC now owns 1,406 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $929,000 after buying an additional 124 shares in the last quarter. Retirement Guys Formula LLC grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 3.0% in the 4th quarter. Retirement Guys Formula LLC now owns 3,298 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,177,000 after buying an additional 95 shares in the last quarter. Alterna Wealth Management Inc. grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 4.4% in the 4th quarter. Alterna Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,894 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,250,000 after buying an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Valley National Advisers Inc. grew its stake in Meta Platforms by 8.6% in the 4th quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 8,864 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $5,850,000 after buying an additional 701 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Meta Platforms Stock Down 0.3%

Shares of NASDAQ:META opened at $668.84 on Wednesday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52-week low of $486.36 and a 52-week high of $796.25. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $627.32 and a 200 day moving average of $650.10. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.69 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 2.60 and a current ratio of 2.60.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 28th. The social networking company reported $8.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $58.33 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $8.02 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 23.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 29.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 26th. Investors of record on Monday, March 16th were given a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 16th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 8.94%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on META shares. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $700.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Bank of America reduced their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $885.00 to $820.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Wolfe Research reduced their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $850.00 to $800.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 10th. Royal Bank Of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $810.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein restated an “outperform” rating and set a $900.00 price target (up from $870.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-eight have issued a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $837.09.

Key Meta Platforms News

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

• Positive Sentiment: UBS raised its price target to $908 and kept a bullish view, citing stronger GenAI-driven ad revenue potential — a big analyst catalyst that supports higher valuation expectations. UBS Hikes Target to $908
• Positive Sentiment: Manitou Investment Management increased its Meta stake, signaling continued institutional confidence and incremental demand for shares. Manitou Boosts Stake
• Positive Sentiment: Meta broke ground on a >$1 billion data center in Tulsa, expanding AI infrastructure capacity — a tangible capex-led push to scale compute for models and ad-serving. Data Center Groundbreaking
• Positive Sentiment: Noon Energy deal reserves up to 1 GW / 100 GWh of long-duration energy storage for Meta’s data centers, supporting reliability and ESG-aligned infrastructure scaling. Noon Energy Agreement
• Neutral Sentiment: Bank of America trimmed its price target to $820 but stayed constructive, reflecting healthy ad trends yet more cautious near-term assumptions — mixed analyst signals can temper volatility. BofA Trims Target
• Negative Sentiment: The Consumer Federation of America filed a class-action suit alleging Meta profited from scam ads and misled users about combating fraud — litigation risk that can raise compliance costs and reputational pressure. CFA Files Suit Over Scam Ads
• Negative Sentiment: Reports that Meta will record employees’ mouse movements and keystrokes to train AI sparked privacy and ethics concerns — potential internal pushback, regulatory scrutiny and reputational risk. Keystroke Tracking Report

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 56,571 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $644.70, for a total value of $36,471,323.70. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 2,778 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $629.45, for a total transaction of $1,748,612.10. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 10,557 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,645,103.65. This represents a 20.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 164,562 shares of company stock worth $105,310,238. Corporate insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms 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.