Bank of Hawaii Sells 244 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Bank of Hawaii cut its position in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 1.1% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 21,280 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 244 shares during the period. Meta Platforms makes up about 0.7% of Bank of Hawaii’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 26th largest position. Bank of Hawaii’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $12,460,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Howard Capital Management Group LLC raised its position 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 purchasing an additional 251 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of 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 valued at $1,928,185,000 after acquiring an additional 204,412 shares during the last quarter. Wilson & Boucher Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 66.7% in the 3rd quarter. Wilson & Boucher Capital Management LLC now owns 1,100 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $630,000 after buying an additional 440 shares during the last quarter. Financial Avengers Inc. lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 12.9% in the third quarter. Financial Avengers Inc. now owns 1,017 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $582,000 after purchasing an additional 116 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sunbelt Securities Inc. lifted its position in Meta Platforms by 0.9% in the third quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 13,570 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $7,768,000 after purchasing an additional 125 shares during the last quarter. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently weighed in on META. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $600.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Mizuho upped their price target on Meta Platforms from $675.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on Meta Platforms from $688.00 to $765.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Barclays raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $630.00 to $705.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Meta Platforms from $700.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Two equities 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $708.55.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of META opened at $585.77 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.98. The company has a market capitalization of $1.48 trillion, a PE ratio of 24.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.28. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $634.58 and its 200 day moving average price is $609.40. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a one year low of $414.50 and a one year high of $740.91.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The social networking company reported $8.02 earnings per share (EPS) 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 period last year, the business posted $5.33 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 26.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Meta Platforms Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th were issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. This is a boost from Meta Platforms’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.36%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 8.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 921 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $570.66, for a total value of $525,577.86. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 30,261 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,268,742.26. This trade represents a 2.95 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 608 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $488.18, for a total transaction of $296,813.44. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 5,622 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,744,547.96. The trade was a 9.76 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 499,507 shares of company stock worth $334,165,387. 13.71% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.