Empire Financial Management Company LLC Has $592,000 Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Empire Financial Management Company LLC reduced its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 2.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. 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 hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of META. Millstone Evans Group LLC bought a new position in Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at about $40,000. Avondale Wealth Management acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at $41,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at $43,000. Cordant Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth about $59,000. Finally, Conquis Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth about $59,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

META has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Truist Financial cut their price objective on Meta Platforms from $770.00 to $700.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Mizuho lifted their price target on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $750.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. KeyCorp decreased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $710.00 to $645.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $615.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $765.00 to $685.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $676.55.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of Meta Platforms stock opened at $520.79 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.98. The firm 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. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $594.44 and its 200-day moving average is $605.11. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a one year low of $414.50 and a one year high of $740.91.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 quarter in the previous year, the company posted $5.33 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

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

Insider Activity at Meta Platforms

In other news, COO Javier Olivan sold 4,706 shares of the stock in a transaction on Saturday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $736.67, for a total transaction of $3,466,769.02. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 20,935 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,422,186.45. This represents a 18.35 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $644.76, for a total value of $23,160,423.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 343,068 shares of company stock worth $237,676,335. Insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms 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.