Empire Life Investments Inc. Has $15.36 Million Position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Empire Life Investments Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 350.8% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 26,654 shares of the social networking company's stock after acquiring an additional 20,741 shares during the quarter. Empire Life Investments Inc.'s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $15,362,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Clearstead Trust LLC increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 8.8% in the first quarter. Clearstead Trust LLC now owns 2,812 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $1,621,000 after buying an additional 228 shares in the last quarter. Earned Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 56.3% in the first quarter. Earned Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 8,540 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $4,922,000 after buying an additional 3,075 shares in the last quarter. SGL Investment Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.9% in the first quarter. SGL Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 6,752 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $4,038,000 after buying an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. NewEdge Wealth LLC increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 4.5% in the first quarter. NewEdge Wealth LLC now owns 210,275 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $121,194,000 after buying an additional 9,001 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Commonwealth Equity Services LLC increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 4.1% in the first quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 636,948 shares of the social networking company's stock valued at $367,111,000 after buying an additional 25,338 shares in the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on META. JMP Securities raised their target price on Meta Platforms from $750.00 to $900.00 and gave the company a "market outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $720.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $635.00 to $740.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Loop Capital reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $980.00 price objective (up from $888.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Needham & Company LLC upgraded Meta Platforms from an "underperform" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 3rd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-nine have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $822.41.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

META opened at $761.83 on Friday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $711.99 and a 200 day simple moving average of $649.96. The company has a market capitalization of $1.92 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.27. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $479.80 and a 1 year high of $784.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.97 and a quick ratio of 1.97.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The social networking company reported $7.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.75 by $1.39. The business had revenue of $47.52 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $44.55 billion. Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 39.33% and a net margin of 39.99%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 21.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $5.16 EPS. Research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 26th. Investors of record on Monday, June 16th were paid a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 16th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms's payout ratio is 7.60%.

Insider Transactions at Meta Platforms

In other news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 15,847 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $768.67, for a total transaction of $12,181,113.49. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Christopher K. Cox sold 60,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $775.95, for a total value of $46,557,000.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 237,205 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $184,059,219.75. The trade was a 20.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 260,024 shares of company stock valued at $188,466,159. Company insiders own 13.61% 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.

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