Meta Platforms, Inc. $META Shares Bought by Empirical Asset Management LLC

Empirical Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 1.0% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 7,338 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 74 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms accounts for approximately 1.7% of Empirical Asset Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 7th biggest holding. Empirical Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $5,416,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in META. Brighton Jones LLC increased its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 34,551 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $20,230,000 after purchasing an additional 570 shares in the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC grew its position in Meta Platforms by 10.2% during the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 9,456 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $5,537,000 after acquiring an additional 875 shares during the last quarter. 1776 Wealth LLC grew its position in Meta Platforms by 137.2% during the 1st quarter. 1776 Wealth LLC now owns 1,167 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $673,000 after acquiring an additional 675 shares during the last quarter. LifeSteps Financial Inc. grew its position in Meta Platforms by 3.8% during the 1st quarter. LifeSteps Financial Inc. now owns 1,069 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $616,000 after acquiring an additional 39 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FFG Partners LLC grew its position in Meta Platforms by 17.6% during the 1st quarter. FFG Partners LLC now owns 32,618 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $18,800,000 after acquiring an additional 4,873 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently commented on META. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on Meta Platforms from $635.00 to $740.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Benchmark raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $800.00 to $890.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Roth Capital raised their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $620.00 to $740.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $920.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, October 16th. Finally, Citigroup restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-nine have issued a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $829.66.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 0.6%

Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $738.36 on Monday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $742.11 and its 200-day moving average is $692.08. The company has a current ratio of 1.97, a quick ratio of 1.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.85 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 1.20. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $479.80 and a 1 year high of $796.25.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The social networking company reported $7.14 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.75 by $1.39. The company had revenue of $47.52 billion for 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 quarter in the prior year, the business posted $5.16 EPS. Meta Platforms has set its Q3 2025 guidance at EPS. Equities analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 29th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 22nd were paid a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 22nd. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is 7.60%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 15,847 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $769.38, for a total transaction of $12,192,364.86. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 11,694 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $775.00, for a total transaction of $9,062,850.00. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer owned 1,799 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,394,225. This represents a 86.67% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 213,665 shares of company stock worth $164,581,886. 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.