We recently published a list of 7 Best AI Value Stocks That are ‘Money Machines’ According to NYU’s Aswath Damodaran. Since Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) ranks 3rd on the list, it deserves a deeper look.
Aswath Damodaran is a Professor of Finance at the Stern School of Business at New York University. His thoughts on economy and stock valuations are given a lot of weight by analysts. Damodaran in his recent interview with CNBC said that Magnificent Seven stocks have become the “value stocks for investors who care about earnings and cash flows.”
“We look at the last year and a half, they’ve added $8.8 trillion in market cap… just these seven companies. Just to give you perspective, the second-largest market in the world, China, has a market cap of $12.1 trillion. These seven stocks alone have added more in market cap than the entire German market, the French market, the Swiss market.”
Damodaran’s comments are important because he’s been repeatedly saying in the past that major technology companies are fully or overvalued. In September, he said on CNBC that if you go through the list of top tech stocks, “you are more likely to be overvalued than undervalued.”
But in his latest interview, Damodaran said that before we “dismiss” Mag. 7 stocks as “risky tech companies,” we should keep in mind that “these are the money machines in this market.”
However, when asked whether he believes we are not in any kind of “danger zone,” the professor said we are in the danger zone not just in terms of these seven stocks, but the market overall.
In this article we take a look at the Mag 7. stocks and their AI-related growth catalysts. 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: 246
META is one of the top names in the Mag. 7 group of stocks which Aswath Damodoran recently called money machine value stocks.
META could offset volatility this summer as investors will flock to Mag. 7 stocks in case market begins to waver, according to a latest report by Wolfe Research.
The social media giant is using AI for optimizing ad targeting and recommendation systems to boost engagement and ads revenue. In the first quarter, Meta Platforms Inc’s (NASDAQ:META) revenue jumped 27% to $36.5 billion. A whopping 97% of this revenue came courtesy of ads. In 2024, Meta Platforms Inc’s (NASDAQ:META) ads revenue is expected to rise by 17%. Reels, which is posting solid numbers and engagement lately, saw a 20% ad load in the first quarter, compared with 16.2% in the same quarter last year. Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) recently posted speculator Q1 results but the stock slipped after the company revealed that Meta Platforms Inc’s (NASDAQ:META) CapEx will come in the range of $35 billion to $40 billion, higher than the previous forecast of $30 billion to $37 billion. However, long-term analysts believe since most of this spending will go into AI projects, it’ll bode well for the stock down the road.
Based on its 2025 EPS estimate of $23.11 set by Wall Street, Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META) is trading at a forward P/E of 21, which makes the stock attractively valued given Meta’s earnings are expected to grow 14.50% next year and by 30% over the next five years on a per-annum basis.
RGA Investment Advisors stated the following regarding Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) in its first quarter 2024 investor letter:
“We believe this section is crucial for highlighting some of the key lessons we have learned since 2022. At the outset, let us clarify that Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) remains one of our three largest positions, fluctuating based on daily market movements. As you read this, it might in fact be our largest holding. In the closing remarks of our Q4 2022 commentary, we noted that we had “made…META substantially larger” during the quarter. Never did we expect the stock to generate such substantial returns in a short period of time. Between Mark Zuckerberg’s “Year of Efficiency,” a recovery in the digital ad market and an improving macro backdrop, META’s key multiples recovered to a comfortable level within their long-term ranges:
Although these multiples are now back to “normal” levels, they are hardly expensive for a company whose top line growth re-accelerated into the double digits, with operating leverage and despite ongoing heavy investments in the Reality Labs segment. These are the reasons why we continue to hold a large position in META. As for why we did some selling, we want to emphasize a few key points”
Overall, Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) ranks 3rd on Insider Monkey’s list titled Jim Cramer’s Latest Portfolio: Top 10 Stocks in July. 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 Platforms Inc (NASDAQ: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.