3. Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 194
Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) reported its December quarter results on February 1. The company announced Q4 GAAP earnings per share of $1.76, missing Wall Street estimates by $0.48. Revenue for the period came in at $32.17 billion, outperforming market consensus by $480 million. Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) expects first quarter 2023 total revenue to be in the range of $26 billion to 28.5 billion, compared to a $27.25 billion consensus. It is one of the best stocks to invest in according to smart investors.
After Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) announced on February 19 that it is testing a new subscription service on Facebook and Instagram, Meta Verified, BofA said the firm is “intrigued by this offering” and sees a 12 million potential subscriber opportunity by the end of 2023 to early 2024. Though the firm noted some potential audience size limitations, it believes Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) could outperform the subscriber ramp as a percent of users of peer subscription offerings given a broader audience reach and bigger revenue opportunity for creators. Noting that Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) “continues to take more aggressive action to grow earnings in the year of efficiencies,” BofA maintained a Buy rating and $220 price target on Meta shares on February 21.
According to Insider Monkey’s fourth quarter database, 194 hedge funds were long Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META), compared to 177 funds in the preceding quarter. Boykin Curry’s Eagle Capital Management is a significant position holder in the company, with 9.11 million shares worth over $1 billion.
Vulcan Value Partners made the following comment about Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) in its Q4 2022 investor letter:
“During the quarter we sold Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) after owning the business for over four years. The fundamentals of our investment case were based on the tremendous number of users that spent time on its various properties and the advertising dollars that flowed to the company as a result. We believed its competitive advantage was that the platform was, more or less, a monopoly on people’s time and attention. The rise of TikTok and other emerging platforms has given us pause on the company’s ability to maximize that advantage. From our perspective, the idea of “one platform to rule them all” may now be a thing of the past as social offerings have become more fragmented.
In addition, though our research has indicated that much of the initial damage done from Apple’s iOS 14.5 privacy changes has been repaired, we remain concerned with Apple’s influence over the digital advertising ecosystem. Apple is one of the largest gatekeepers to Meta’s mobile services, and it has become more difficult for us to gauge the pace of change emerging from Apple relating to privacy, as well as evaluating Apple’s ambitions in advertising…” (Click here to read the full text)
