An earnings-driven rally in Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) pushed exchanged traded funds tied to the communication services sector higher during Thursday's intraday trading.
Meta is owned by 332 different ETFs and forms a major part of Communication Services Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSEARCA:XLC), with a portfolio weight of 16.76% as per ETF.com. This is the highest concentration in any ETF.
XLC also has a large stake in Alphabet (GOOG) (GOOG), which is rising 6% ahead of quarterly results after the closing bell. The ETF has a 11.8% weighting towards the firm's Class A shares and a 10.5% concentration of its Class C shares.
Other major holdings for XLC include Verizon (VC), Disney (DIS) and Netflix (NFLX).
XLC rose 6.7% in Thursday's intraday session driven by ~28% surge in META.
The rally also included other ETFs with a relatively high concentration of META stock: Fidelity MSCI Communication Services Index ETF (NYSEARCA:FCOM) +5.4%, Vanguard Communication Services ETF (NYSEARCA:VOX) +5.4%, iShares Global Comm Services ETF (NYSEARCA:IXP) +4%, Global X Social Media ETF (NASDAQ:SOCL) +4%.
The gains came after META surpassed Q4 revenue expectations and announced a $40B share buyback program. The company also sees Q1 total revenue of $26B to $28B in-line with consensus of $27.25B.
Meta's positive outlook also pushed its peers higher during midday trading session: Pinterest (PINS) +7.9% and Snapchat (SNAP) +10.8%.
Although 28% higher on Thursday and +55% so far this year, Meta is still 39% lower for the year.
Looking at the YTD performance for the META-related ETFs: XLC +22.5%, FCOM +21.8%, VOX +21.7%, IXP +18.8% and SOCL +22.8%.
Meanwhile, in Thursday's intraday action, broader market index SPY (SPY) and S&P 500 (SP500) rose 1.6%, Nasdaq Composite (COMP.IND) +3.4% and Dow Jones (DJI) fractionally down.
For more in-depth analysis on META stock, click here.