Empire Financial Management Company LLC Sells 25 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Empire Financial Management Company LLC cut its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 2.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,011 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 25 shares during the period. Empire Financial Management Company LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $592,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in META. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 11.9% during the fourth quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC now owns 61,019 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $35,727,000 after buying an additional 6,503 shares during the period. Burling Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth about $6,186,000. Evercore Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Evercore Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,226 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $4,231,000 after purchasing an additional 79 shares during the last quarter. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC lifted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 25.3% during the fourth quarter. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC now owns 942 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $552,000 after purchasing an additional 190 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mar Vista Investment Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 38.9% in the 4th quarter. Mar Vista Investment Partners LLC now owns 99,472 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $58,242,000 after buying an additional 27,837 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on META shares. Argus set a $775.00 price target on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Meta Platforms from $685.00 to $752.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Oppenheimer upped their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Benchmark reduced their price objective on Meta Platforms from $820.00 to $640.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, KeyCorp dropped their target price on Meta Platforms from $710.00 to $645.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $676.55.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 4.1 %

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $520.79 on Thursday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a twelve month low of $414.50 and a twelve month high of $740.91. The company has a quick ratio of 2.98, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company’s 50 day moving average is $594.44 and its 200 day moving average is $605.11. The company has a market cap of $1.32 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 38.17% and a net margin of 37.91%. During the same period last year, the company earned $5.33 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. This is a boost from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.40%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.78%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meta Platforms news, COO Javier Olivan sold 406 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $491.69, for a total value of $199,626.14. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 4,608 shares in the company, valued at $2,265,707.52. This represents a 8.10 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $673.57, for a total transaction of $24,195,307.97. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 343,068 shares of company stock worth $237,676,335. Company insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Company Profile

Meta Platforms, Inc engages in the development of products that enable people to connect and share with friends and family through mobile devices, personal computers, virtual reality headsets, and wearables worldwide. It operates in two segments, Family of Apps and Reality Labs. The Family of Apps segment offers Facebook, which enables people to share, discuss, discover, and connect with interests; Instagram, a community for sharing photos, videos, and private messages, as well as feed, stories, reels, video, live, and shops; Messenger, a messaging application for people to connect with friends, family, communities, and businesses across platforms and devices through text, audio, and video calls; and WhatsApp, a messaging application that is used by people and businesses to communicate and transact privately.