Meta Platforms, Inc. $META Shares Sold by Yousif Capital Management LLC

Yousif Capital Management LLC cut its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 4.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 246,147 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 11,728 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms makes up 1.6% of Yousif Capital Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 8th largest position. Yousif Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $148,703,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Westchester Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter worth $26,000. Evergreen Private Wealth LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 64.8% during the 3rd quarter. Evergreen Private Wealth LLC now owns 89 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $65,000 after buying an additional 35 shares in the last quarter. PMV Capital Advisers LLC lifted its stake in Meta Platforms by 26.3% in the 4th quarter. PMV Capital Advisers LLC now owns 96 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $63,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 3rd quarter valued at $71,000. Finally, Dorato Capital Management bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at $62,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Trading Up 1.4%

Shares of META stock opened at $671.58 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $1.70 trillion, a P/E ratio of 28.58, a P/E/G ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.31. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $626.81 and a 200-day simple moving average of $652.04. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $479.80 and a fifty-two week high of $796.25. The company has a quick ratio of 2.60, a current ratio of 2.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 28th. The social networking company reported $8.88 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $8.16 by $0.72. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.61% and a net margin of 30.08%.The business had revenue of $59.89 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $58.33 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $8.02 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 23.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast 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 was paid on Thursday, March 26th. Investors of record on Monday, March 16th were paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 16th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 8.94%.

Key Headlines Impacting Meta Platforms

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

• Positive Sentiment: Expanded Broadcom partnership — Meta struck a multi‑year agreement to deploy custom AI silicon (initial 1+ gigawatt commitment) and networking support through 2029, a direct accelerant for Meta’s in‑house AI compute buildout and a major near‑term catalyst for investor optimism. Meta inks deal with Broadcom for custom AI chips (Reuters)
• Positive Sentiment: Ad leadership thesis strengthens — eMarketer projects Meta to overtake Google as the top digital ad seller by net revenue this year, supporting upside to revenue and margins if trends persist. Meta stock trades up after eMarketer projection (Yahoo)
• Positive Sentiment: Bullish analyst/market views — Morgan Stanley named META a top Big Tech pick with a $775 target and other research houses highlight Meta as a growth/AI beneficiary, underpinning demand for shares. Meta top pick for tech earnings (Barron’s)
• Positive Sentiment: AI capex & strategic positioning — Coverage highlights Meta’s aggressive AI investment plans (reported 2026 AI-related capex range cited), which supports the narrative of long‑term leadership in AI infrastructure and monetization. Meta investing heavily in AI (Yahoo)
• Neutral Sentiment: Reality Labs reorganization — Meta is restructuring Reality Labs to speed execution and created an Applied AI Engineering unit; could improve capital efficiency but outcomes are uncertain. Reality Labs changes to speed progress (PYMNTS)
• Neutral Sentiment: Internal AI initiatives — Meta is developing internal AI tools (including a photorealistic Zuckerberg replica for employees); interesting for productivity but limited direct revenue impact. Meta builds AI replica of Zuckerberg (ProactiveInvestors)
• Negative Sentiment: EU antitrust pressure on WhatsApp AI access — The European Commission says Meta’s WhatsApp fee may breach rules and has ordered rollback of restrictions that limit rival AI chatbots, a regulatory risk to Meta’s product strategy and potential fines or mandates. EU warns Meta WhatsApp AI fee breaches antitrust rules (Reuters)
• Negative Sentiment: Legal/class‑action risk in Italy — A Milan court allowed a class action over Facebook data scraping, adding potential litigation exposure and reputational risk in Europe. Italy court allows class action (Reuters)
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling disclosed — COO Javier Oliván executed Rule 10b5‑1 sales reducing his stake; while preplanned, insider sales can attract short‑term attention. COO insider sales SEC filing

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 2,778 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $629.45, for a total value of $1,748,612.10. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 10,557 shares in the company, valued at $6,645,103.65. This trade represents a 20.83% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 580 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $632.02, for a total value of $366,571.60. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 4,427 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,797,952.54. This trade represents a 11.58% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 164,499 shares of company stock valued at $105,237,895 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 13.61% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have issued reports on META shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $880.00 to $920.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Tuesday, January 13th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Piper Sandler increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $840.00 to $880.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Pivotal Research reduced their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $930.00 to $910.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company 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 issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $837.72.

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.