5 Stocks You Should Sell Before Recession

2. Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:FB)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 224   

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) is a tech firm that owns and runs social media platforms. Privacy concerns were already weighing heavily on the firm when the twin threat of inflation and rising interest rates decreased investor confidence in the stock further over the past few months. Online advertising revenue for the firm has been affected this year due to multiple factors that include the impact of the Ukraine war, soft brand ad spend, and likely impact from declining consumer spend in Europe that is driven by inflation and oil prices. 

On April 28, MKM Partners analyst Rohit Kulkarni maintained a Buy rating on Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) stock but lowered the price target to $295 from $315, noting that the first quarter results of the firm were mixed and forward guidance soft. 

At the end of the fourth quarter of 2021, 224 hedge funds in the database of Insider Monkey held stakes worth $31.8 billion in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:FB), compared to 248 in the preceding quarter worth $38.5 billion. 

In its Q4 2021 investor letter, Boyar Value Group, an asset management firm, highlighted a few stocks and Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) was one of them. Here is what the fund said:

“Corporate executives can have many different reasons for selling shares (anticipation of tax law changes, philanthropy, diversification, and much more), but the sheer number of billionaire founders who sold shares in 2021 should raise eyebrows and might well be signaling a market top. Bloomberg’s Ben Steverman and Scott Carpenter report not only that Mark Zuckerberg of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) (formerly known as Facebook) sold shares in his company almost every day last year but also that the founders of Google sold ~$3.5 billion worth of stock (the first time either Sergey Brin or Larry Page has sold shares since 2017).”