We recently published a list of the 12 Best Long-Term Growth Stocks to Buy Now. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) stands against other best long-term growth stocks to buy right now.
Expectations Regarding Fed’s Rate Cuts in 2025
Released on Friday, February 7, the January jobs report showed resilience in the labor market with higher-than-expected wage growth. December’s monthly job gains also showed an upward revision, highlighting that the US labor market ended 2024 in a better position than previously reported. Economists are thus of the opinion that the Federal Reserve may not cut rates in the near future. Consequently, this increases pressure on inflation data to cool down before the central bank considers slashing borrowing costs.
On January 30, Jeffrey Gundlach, CEO of DoubleLine Capital, appeared on CNBC’s “Closing Bell” to discuss the stock market and the Fed’s decision to leave rates unchanged. Sticking to the opinion he gave in December, Gundlach was of the view that 2025 would bring a maximum of two rate cuts by the Fed. He reiterated that he was not predicting two cuts but that two would be the maximum number attained in 2025, keeping one rate cut as the base case for the year. The unemployment rate went up for several consecutive months before ticking down, which Gundlach thinks is a matter of deep solace for the chair of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell.
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What Does the 2025 Outlook for the Stock Market Look Like?
On February 10, Mary Ann Bartels, Sanctuary Wealth’s chief investment strategist, appeared on CNBC to discuss the 2025 outlook for the stock market. She showed bullish sentiment towards the market, particularly due to strong earnings growth. Comparing the current environment to previous periods of innovation, such as the 1920s and the 1990s, Bartels highlighted the role of robotics, AI, and Web3 in driving long-term growth in the present.
She noted that companies today fund investments with cash and equity rather than excessive leverage, unlike the 1990s. Her estimates showed that the S&P could reach 7,200 to 7,400 this year and 10,000 to 13,000 by the decade’s end, as she expects the bull market to extend through 2029 to 2030.
Our Methodology
We sifted through stock screeners, online rankings, and ETFs to compile a list of 20 growth stocks. We checked their 5-year revenue growth (at least above 15%) and then selected the top 12 most popular stocks among elite hedge funds as of fiscal Q3 2024. We sourced the hedge fund sentiment data from Insider Monkey’s database. The list is sorted in ascending order of hedge fund sentiment.
Why do we care about what hedge funds do? 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).
Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)
5-Year Revenue Growth: 18.40%
Number of Hedge Funds: 235
Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) develops social media applications and operates through the Family of Apps (FoA) and Reality Labs (RL) segments. The Family of Apps segment covers Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, Messenger, and other services, while the Reality Labs segment encompasses mixed, augmented, and virtual reality-related software, hardware, and content.
The company reported a 22% revenue growth to $164.5 billion in fiscal 2024, while earnings grew by 60% year-over-year to $23.86 per share. Its operating income grew by 48% to $69.4 million, giving the company an operating margin of 42%. Meta Platforms, Inc.’s (NASDAQ:META) operating margin for fiscal Q4 2024 reached 48%, reflecting the company’s significant market power.
More than 98% of the company’s revenue comes from selling advertising slots on its social networks to businesses. It is employing AI to further expand its market share growth in the digital advertising space. This strategy is expected to prove profitable for the company, as the adoption of AI in marketing is anticipated to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 25% through 2030, according to Grand View Research. Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) also announced that its capital expenditures for 2025 may reach up to $65 billion, reflecting a 60% growth over last year. Most of this capital is expected to go to the company’s AI infrastructure investments.
Rowan Street Capital stated the following regarding Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META): Investment Initiated: April 2018: Internal Rate of Return (IRR*): 22% *IRR represents the annualized rate of return on investment, accounting for the timing and magnitude of cash flows over the holding period.
For META, our 22% IRR aligns closely with the company’s compounded growth in earnings per share (EPS) and free cash flow per share during the 6-year holding period.
Looking ahead, Meta is expected to grow its revenues, earnings, and free cash flow per share at mid-teens rates over the next two years. There’s a good possibility that it could exceed these estimates, considering the breadth of growth initiatives currently in place, such as advancements in Al, monetization of Reels, expansion into business messaging, and the ongoing development of the metaverse…” (Click here to read the full text)
Overall, META ranks second on our list of best long-term growth stocks to buy right now. While we acknowledge the potential of META, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. 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.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.