Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management Purchases 594 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Key Points

• Empirical Financial Services LLC increased its stake in Meta Platforms by 0.7% in Q1, owning a total of 84,062 shares valued at approximately $48.45 million, making it the 18th largest position in their portfolio.
• Analysts have expressed positive sentiments, with 39 buy ratings and three strong buy ratings on Meta's stock, alongside an increased consensus target price of $822.41.
• Meta Platforms reported impressive Q2 earnings with an earnings per share (EPS) of $7.14 and revenue of $47.52 billion, exceeding expectations and reflecting a 21.6% year-over-year increase.

Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management lifted its stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META - Free Report) by 0.7% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 84,062 shares of the social networking company's stock after purchasing an additional 594 shares during the period. Meta Platforms accounts for 1.2% of Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management's portfolio, making the stock its 18th largest position. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management's holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $48,450,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Valley Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Valley Financial Group Inc. now owns 588 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $344,000 after purchasing an additional 14 shares during the last quarter. Lantern Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Lantern Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,976 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $1,743,000 after purchasing an additional 14 shares during the last quarter. ABLE Financial Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. ABLE Financial Group LLC now owns 2,136 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $1,251,000 after purchasing an additional 15 shares during the last quarter. Mosaic Family Wealth Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Mosaic Family Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,435 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $840,000 after purchasing an additional 17 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Orin Green Financial LLC increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Orin Green Financial LLC now owns 795 shares of the social networking company's stock worth $465,000 after purchasing an additional 17 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently commented on META. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Meta Platforms from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Loop Capital upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $888.00 to $980.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday. Oppenheimer upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $775.00 to $870.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. DA Davidson upped their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $825.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Benchmark reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $890.00 price target (up previously from $800.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Four equities 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's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $822.41.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 22,449 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Friday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $636.85, for a total transaction of $14,296,645.65. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer owned 1,183 shares of the company's stock, valued at $753,393.55. This trade represents a 94.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 15,847 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction on Friday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $753.43, for a total transaction of $11,939,605.21. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 167,298 shares of company stock valued at $116,742,790 in the last three months. 13.61% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Meta Platforms Trading Down 1.7%

Shares of META stock traded down $12.91 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $763.46. 11,612,061 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 13,355,778. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $704.66 and its 200 day simple moving average is $647.27. The stock has a market cap of $1.92 trillion, a PE ratio of 27.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.27. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12 month low of $478.65 and a 12 month high of $784.75. The company has a quick ratio of 1.97, a current ratio of 1.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15.

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 firm had revenue of $47.52 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $44.55 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 39.99% and a return on equity of 39.33%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 21.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $5.16 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

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

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.