Runnymede Capital Advisors Inc. Acquires New Holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Runnymede Capital Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 1,025 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $600,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in META. JDM Financial Group LLC bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Millstone Evans Group LLC bought a new position in Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Avondale Wealth Management bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at $41,000. Finally, Cordant Inc. bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter valued at $59,000. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on META shares. Mizuho raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $750.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $650.00 to $800.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $753.00 to $780.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Benchmark raised shares of Meta Platforms from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $820.00 price target for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Scotiabank raised their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $583.00 to $627.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, thirty-five have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $718.31.

Meta Platforms Stock Up 1.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $596.25 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.51 trillion, a P/E ratio of 24.93, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $655.38 and a 200-day moving average price of $606.39. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 1 year low of $414.50 and a 1 year high of $740.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.98.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $6.75 by $1.27. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 37.91% and a return on equity of 38.17%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $5.33 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This is a boost from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.35%. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is 8.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 921 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $600.25, for a total transaction of $552,830.25. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 32,103 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,269,825.75. The trade was a 2.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 2,311 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $600.21, for a total transaction of $1,387,085.31. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 622,431 shares of company stock worth $408,968,491. 13.71% of the stock is owned by insiders.

About Meta Platforms

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.