RS Crum Inc. Purchases 26 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

RS Crum Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 2.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,072 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 26 shares during the quarter. RS Crum Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $627,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Howard Capital Management Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 17.9% during the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 1,652 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $946,000 after acquiring an additional 251 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in Meta Platforms by 6.5% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,368,361 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,928,185,000 after purchasing an additional 204,412 shares in the last quarter. United Bank raised its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 22.2% in the 3rd quarter. United Bank now owns 5,569 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $3,188,000 after purchasing an additional 1,011 shares during the period. 1776 Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the third quarter valued at about $282,000. Finally, Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.9% during the third quarter. Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 13,431 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $7,688,000 after buying an additional 249 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on META shares. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $770.00 target price (up previously from $700.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $660.00 to $725.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Raymond James restated a “strong-buy” rating and set a $800.00 target price (up previously from $725.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Arete Research upgraded shares of Meta Platforms to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $710.00 to $765.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, thirty-five have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $718.31.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

META opened at $584.06 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a current ratio of 2.98. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52-week low of $414.50 and a 52-week high of $740.91. The firm has a market cap of $1.48 trillion, a P/E ratio of 24.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.23. The business’s fifty day moving average is $656.27 and its 200-day moving average is $604.69.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 prior year, the business earned $5.33 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.36%. This is a boost from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.78%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 608 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $607.50, for a total transaction of $369,360.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 7,446 shares in the company, valued at $4,523,445. This represents a 7.55 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $604.46, for a total value of $21,712,807.66. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 632,023 shares of company stock worth $414,734,884 over the last three months. Insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

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.