We recently published a list of Analysts are Recommending These 10 AI Stocks. Since Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) ranks 3rd on the list, it deserves a deeper look.
The past several months of market activity and tech innovation has proved that the AI trends that started with the launch of ChatGPT are here to stay and all of this was not something that’d fizzle out after making headlines for some time. Companies are investing billions in AI and they expect to see the results of their investments in the coming months and years. Analysts at UBS said in a report earlier this year that if the launch of ChatGPT was the “iPhone moment” for the AI industry, apps like Copilot signify the “App Store moment.”
UBS also increased its revenue estimates for the AI industry in the report by 40%. The firm said at the time that it now expects revenue in the AI industry to increase from $28 billion in 2022 to $420 billion in 2027. This would represent a CAGR of over 70%.
UBS justified its growth projections by drawing an analogy from the past growth cycles of mainframes, smartphones and PCs.
“Annual shipments for mainframes were only about 1mn units until the 1980s, when they ballooned to around 10mn as microcomputers became mainstream computing devices. This was followed by a sharp increase during the PC era, when annual PC shipments shot up to more than 100mn units, with PC shipments eventually reaching an annual run-rate of nearly 300mn. Smart devices, which include smartphones and tablet PCs, crossed 1bn shipments during the mid2010s. Currently, annual shipments are close to 1.5bn units. With AI, we expect this 10x growth trend to continue, with annual AI chatbots and applications potentially crossing 10bn units.”
For this article we took a look at the latest analyst rating actions around AI stocks and picked the 10 most important AI companies that recently received positive comments or ratings from notable Wall Street analysts. With each stock we have mentioned the number of hedge fund investors. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).
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Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 219
GMO’s Tom Hancock recently talked about quality stocks in the big tech space and said he’s focusing on stocks that can get a decent rate of return with growth on their investments. Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) is among the holdings of GMO US Quality ETF (NYSEARCA:QLTY) which is up about 20% so far this year.
Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) crushed past analyst estimates for its latest quarterly results, giving signs that the huge AI spending it’s doing would bear more results in the future. After the results, Citi said it remains “incrementally positive” on Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) shares due to engagement and monetization gains, along with expanding margins. The firm raised its price target for META to $580 from $550.
JPMorgan said it sees AI benefiting Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) at three levels: core Family of Apps (FoA) improvements, new opportunities and experiences, and scaling the Metaverse. It also upped META price target to $610 from $480.
Morgan Stanley also liked how Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) is improving its recommendation systems and quality with AI.
The market has been reluctant about Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) massive spending on AI. What does Meta want to achieve with its AI spending? The company wants to use AI to improve engagement and language models like Llama 3 to improve user interactions, boost engagement, and better monetize its 3.2 billion daily active users.
But can Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) sustain this high spending? The company’s free cash flow margin is around 30%, and it’s well on track to report $50 billion in free cash flow this year. Based on this target the stock is trading at around 26 times this year’s free cash flow. Given the current trajectory continues Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) can post $58 billion in free cash flow by next year, which means the stock is trading at 21 times next year’s free cash flow. With a whopping $35 billion in net cash, a strong user base, and a key position in the consumer-facing side of the AI industry, Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) could be a solid long-term investment.
Polen Focus Growth Strategy stated the following regarding Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“In the second quarter, the top relative contributors to the Portfolio’s performance were all names we do not hold: Home Depot, Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META), and AbbVie. Meta Platforms delivered robust results in the period, with revenue growth accelerating in the first quarter. However, revenue comparisons for Meta will become more difficult from here, and its guidance for 2Q revenue fell below market expectations. After the company’s “year of efficiency,” where it cut costs in its core business, management is now indicating another ramp-up in GenAI and metaverse spending, spurring concerns about future profit margins. Metaverse spending, by our calculations, is now over $20 billion per year with little to no expected return on the foreseeable horizon.”
Overall, Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) ranks 3rd on Insider Monkey’s list titled Analysts are Recommending These 10 AI Stocks. While we acknowledge the potential of Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META), our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than META but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
READ NEXT: Analyst Sees a New $25 Billion “Opportunity” for NVIDIA and Jim Cramer is Recommending These Stocks.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
