5. Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META)
Billionaire Israel Englander’s Stake Value: $1,196,554,582
Raymond James recently upgraded Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META) shares citing the company’s generative AI ambitions. The firm’s analyst Josh Beck increased his price target on the stock to $550 from $525. Why is Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META) a promising AI stock? The social media giant is using AI for optimizing ad targeting and recommendation systems to boost engagement and ads revenue. In the first quarter, Meta Platforms Inc’s (NASDAQ:META) revenue jumped 27% to $36.5 billion. A whopping 97% of this revenue came courtesy of ads. In 2024, Meta Platforms Inc’s (NASDAQ:META) ads revenue is expected to rise by 17%. Reels, which is posting solid numbers and engagement lately, saw a 20% ad load in the first quarter, compared with 16.2% in the same quarter last year. Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) recently posted speculator Q1 results but the stock slipped after the company revealed that Meta Platforms Inc’s (NASDAQ:META) CapEx will come in the range of $35 billion to $40 billion, higher than the previous forecast of $30 billion to $37 billion. However, long-term analysts believe since most of this spending will go into AI projects, it’ll bode well for the stock down the road.
Based on its 2025 EPS estimate of $23.11 set by Wall Street, Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META) is trading at a forward P/E of 21, which makes the stock attractively valued given Meta’s earnings are expected to grow 14.50% next year and by 30% over the next five years on a per-annum basis.
RiverPark Large Growth Fund stated the following regarding Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) in its first quarter 2024 investor letter:
“Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META): Meta was a top contributor in the quarter following fourth quarter earnings results in which the company reported accelerating revenue growth and expanding margins driven by a rebound in online advertising and strong user growth. On February 2nd, Meta reported 4Q23 revenue of $40.1 billion (+25% y/y up from +23% in 3Q23) and EPS of $5.33 (+203% y/y), and the midpoint of 1Q24 revenue guidance was $35.8 billion (+25% y/y), all well ahead of investors’ expectations. The company reported impressive revenue acceleration in its core advertising businesses, including new products like Reels and Threads. Advertiser adoption of Meta’s AI targeting tools helped drive strong ROI and higher spend across multiple categories.
META owns multiple social media platforms, each with more than one billion users, has an 81% gross margin, and generated $44 billion of FCF in 2023. Both its Facebook and its Instagram franchises have more than 2 billion Daily Active Users and generate the bulk of the company’s revenue. Recently, the company’s short form video offering, Reels, and public text-sharing app, Threads, achieved mass user engagement and growing advertiser adoption which have helped return the company to strong revenue and free cash flow growth. Even after the recent stock price advance, META shares trade at 20x Wall Street’s consensus estimates for 2025 EPS, estimates that we think could prove to be too low.”
