Is it Still Worth Buying Meta (FB) Shares?

ClearBridge Investments, an investment management firm, published its “All Cap Growth Strategy” first quarter 2022 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. The ClearBridge All Cap Growth Strategy underperformed its Russell 3000 Growth Index benchmark in the first quarter. On an absolute basis, the Strategy had losses across seven of the eight sectors in which it was invested (out of 11 sectors total). The primary detractors of performance were the IT and communication services sectors while the sole contributor was the financials sector. Try to spend some time taking a look at the fund’s top 5 holdings to be informed about their best picks for 2022.

In its Q1 2022 investor letter, ClearBridge Investments All Cap Growth Strategy mentioned Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) and explained its insights for the company. Founded in 2004, Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:FB)  is a Menlo Park, California-based multinational technology conglomerate with a $573.8 billion market capitalization. Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:FB)  delivered a -36.96% return since the beginning of the year, while its 12-month returns are down by -32.69%. The stock closed at $212.03 per share on May 03, 2022.

Here is what ClearBridge Investments All Cap Growth Strategy has to say about Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) in its Q1 2022 investor letter: 

“Facebook shares derated following fourth-quarter earnings results and first-quarter revenue guidance that was weaker than expected. We knew going into Facebook’s latest reporting period that Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) iOS14 privacy changes (measurement, loss of signal) would have a near-term impact on earnings, but competition in the social media space (primarily from TikTok) further catalyzed multiple compression in the stock. While TikTok is a competitive threat and Apple’s privacy changes have impacted the industry, we believe these risks are manageable and Facebook retains a number of advantages around user scale, advertiser scale, new product development and sophistication of its digital advertising technology that are not being valued at current levels.”

Photo by Timothy Hales Bennett on Unsplash

Our calculations show that Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) ranks 3rd on our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) was in 224 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the fourth quarter of 2021, compared to 248 funds in the previous quarter. Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) delivered a -33.82% return in the past 3 months.

Earlier this month, we also shared another hedge fund’s views on Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) in another article. You can find other investor letters from hedge funds and prominent investors on our hedge fund investor letters 2022 Q1 page.

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.