Empire Financial Management Company LLC Reduces Stock Holdings 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 third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,036 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 25 shares during the quarter. Empire Financial Management Company LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $593,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. JDM Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms in the third quarter worth about $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $36,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 122.2% in the 2nd quarter. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. now owns 80 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares during the period. Finally, Halpern Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the third quarter valued at approximately $46,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

META opened at $619.32 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $1.56 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.17, a PEG ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.20. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1-year low of $319.99 and a 1-year high of $629.79. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $581.32 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $535.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 2.73 and a quick ratio of 2.73.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The social networking company reported $6.03 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.19 by $0.84. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 35.60% and a net margin of 35.55%. The firm had revenue of $40.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $40.21 billion. Equities analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 22.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 16th will be issued a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 16th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.32%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.42%.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 22,946 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, December 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $621.84, for a total transaction of $14,268,740.64. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Christopher K. Cox sold 20,000 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $557.52, for a total transaction of $11,150,400.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 338,662 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $188,810,838.24. The trade was a 5.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 164,201 shares of company stock worth $95,420,559 in the last three months. Insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

META has been the subject of several recent research reports. Scotiabank lowered their price objective on Meta Platforms from $585.00 to $583.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Pivotal Research raised their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $780.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Truist Financial boosted their price target on Meta Platforms from $570.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $555.00 to $636.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Finally, Tigress Financial boosted their target price on Meta Platforms from $575.00 to $645.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 16th. Two research 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 given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $635.20.

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.