META, GOOG Named as Potential Buys by Veteran Investor

Meta (META), Alphabet (GOOG), and Salesforce (CRM) are potentially good buys in the current, volatile environment, Dryden Pence, the Chief Investment Officer and Co-Founder of Pence Wealth Management told Schwab Network recently.

During the same segment, Yung-Yu Ma, Chief Investment Office for the wealth management unit of Canada-based BMO, a major bank, said some stocks have reached “bargain” levels and predicted that “strong names will stabilize” during the upcoming earnings season.

Meta App 3D sign

The Stocks That Interest Pence

Pence said that his firm is “looking at” Meta, which, he noted, has a forward price-earnings ratio of 20 times and obtains 44% of its revenue from the U.S. Salesforce (CRM) has a price-earnings ratio of 22 and gets a “significant amount” of its revenue from the U.S., Pence noted. Google also gets a meaningful amount of its sales from America, he indicated.

The best names to buy at this point are firms that get “a lot of revenue from the U.S. and operate more in the software realm because they are least affected by tariffs,” Pence stated.

Ma Agrees With Pence

The best-positioned companies are those with a large amount of exposure to the U.S. and those whose margins are unlikely to fall a great deal due to higher import costs in the wake of the tariffs, Ma stated.  Firms that derive large amounts of revenue from software and/or intellectual property are likely to be relatively well-positioned, while those that rely on imports from China will probably be significantly hurt by the tariffs, he believes.

“We are looking at names that are less affected by the new environment,” Ma said.

He believes that many of the positive drivers which had been in place before the tariffs were imposed are likely to remain intact going forward and ultimately be a “driving force.”

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 timeframe. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. 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 this cheapest AI stock.

READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires

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