We recently compiled a list of the 10 Best Stocks for Beginners with Little Money According to Hedge Funds. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) stands against the other beginner-friendly stocks.
Headlines from the US Stock Market
Uncertainty sweeps across the US with the incoming administration’s potential policies. Simultaneously, the Federal Reserve has decided to pause its rate-cutting cycle and the decision to resume easing is doubtful amidst Trump’s trade policies which are being deemed inflationary. Tariffs on foreign imports are considered a risk of reviving inflation. According to Reuters, Dustin Reid, chief strategist of fixed income at Mackenzie Investments in Toronto, reiterated the uncertainty looming as follows:
“Everything that is going on right now, from economic data to markets news and tariffs, adds up to a lot more uncertainty across all markets”
Recently, technology stocks benefitting from the business potential of AI witnessed a deep shock as Chinese startup DeepSeek revealed a large language model that can compete with American AI giants but at a fraction of the cost of OpenAI’s, Google’s, or Meta’s popular AI models. DeepSeek unveiled a free, open-source large language model that it claims took only two months and less than $6 to build.
The event raised a lot of concerns over America’s leadership in the AI sector and how big tech giants are investing heavily in AI models and data centers while DeepSeek somehow developed a highly competitive model without having as much compute as U.S. hyperscalers, as pointed out by Srini Pajjuri, semiconductor analyst at Raymond James. While the US has been trying to limit China’s access to the chips powering advanced AI systems, the news about DeepSeek’s chatbot making it to most-downloaded free app in the US on Apple’s App Store demonstrates the country’s rapid gains in the sector.
Our Methodology:
In order to compile a list of the 10 best stocks for beginners with little money according to hedge funds, we used a consensus of similar rankings as well as blue-chip ETFs. Moving on, we shortlisted the top 10 stocks from our list which had the highest number of hedge fund holders. The 10 best stocks for beginners with little money according to hedge funds have been arranged in ascending order of their hedge fund holders as of Q3.
At Insider Monkey we are obsessed with 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).
Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 235
Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) formerly the Facebook company, builds the future of human connection and the technology that makes it possible. The firm has moved beyond 2D screens and into immersive experiences in the metaverse to help create the next evolution of social technology. It has two reportable segments, the ‘Family of Apps’ including Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, and other services, and the ‘Reality Labs’ which includes its virtual, augmented, and mixed reality-related consumer hardware, software, and content.
Mark Zuckerberg embraced the metaverse by changing his company’s name from Facebook to Meta, with a focus on bringing the metaverse to life and helping people connect, find communities, and grow businesses. While the company is progressing well on AI, glasses, and the future of social media, Mark Zuckerberg remains excited to see the efforts scale further this year. He remained confident in META’s artificial intelligence strategy and dismissed concerns over the rise of DeepSeek saying that it has strengthened META’s commitment to its AI ambitions. The tech giant is to spend a total of $114-$119 billion in total expenses which includes $60 to $65 billion in AI spend this year.
Jefferies has reiterated a Buy rating on Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) while raising the stock target to $810 from $715. The firm is bullish on META’s position to monetize its traction in generative AI with the META.AI platform and Llama, compelling opportunities for the company to strengthen its position in the AI market.
Overall META ranks 3rd on our list of the best stocks for beginners with little money according to hedge funds. While we acknowledge the potential of META as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some deeply undervalued AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for a deeply undervalued 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.