5 Most Widely Held Stocks by Individuals

3. Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META)

Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 234

Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) ranks third in our list of the stocks widely held by individuals.

Earlier this month, Wells Fargo increased its price target on Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) to $402 from $380, citing potential upside in earnings per share in 2024 and 2025.

“Expect Meta’s positive revision cycle to moderate in ’24, as company lapses multiple micro/macro tailwinds incl. x-border, Reels, and Advantage+, with new potential monetization initiatives yet to ramp up, e.g. Messaging, Threads and Meta AI,” Wells Fargo analysts said.

In its fourth quarter 2023 investor letter, ClearBridge Large Cap Growth Strategy stated the following regarding Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META):

“Much of that differential can be attributed to the performance of the Magnificent Seven (Alphabet, Amazon.com, Apple, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla), a basket of mega cap growth stocks that accounted for 47.8% of the benchmark return for the quarter and 65.4% for 2023.

The ClearBridge Large Cap Growth Strategy maintains exposure to six of the seven stocks, with overweights in Amazon.com, Meta and Nvidia. Amazon benefited from strong margin expansion across segments, most notably its core e-commerce business, while Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) saw accelerated revenue growth and share gains in online advertising.

Active management of our mega cap exposure contributed to the Strategy outperforming the benchmark both in the fourth quarter and through the narrow leadership market of 2023. We also attribute these improved results to solid stock picking, being opportunistic in adding to or initiating new positions in growth companies at or near the bottom of their earnings cycle, and maintaining a commitment to diversification across our three buckets of growth: select, stable and cyclical.”