Meta Platforms IncMETADON'T BUYApr 16, 2013Stock price when the opinion was issued
As of Jun 04, 2026. Market Open.
He likes all the hyper-scalers but META has only an 18X PE ratio and has the best upside over the next 12 months. It has had the most incremental advertising dollars over the past five years and is growing its business. Has $250 billion in revenue. It is down because investors feel it is spending too much on AI. It is using AI already in its core business and expanding it to new products. Should be the biggest beneficiary of the AI rollout.
Buy 71 Hold 8 Sell 0
Financial results were excellent. But $125B in spending this year (at the low end), and CEO has been vague about where returns will be seen. Sales up 30% last quarter, clearly benefiting from AI (content recommendations and ad targeting).
Noteworthy is that they keep all compute for themselves, and don't sell to others. This avenue could be monetized in future.
AI spending is going to get to a point that the market just won't accept. As long as share price continues to be "OK", these companies will keep spending.
Problem here is that it's spending almost all of cashflow on capex, now outspending its own profitability. Started taking on debt. May not matter right now, but sometime it will.
His choice among the Mag 7 because of where it's trading. Fell on eye-popping AI concerns and legal challenges. Whole tech sector swooned. Cut workforce 10%, scrapped plans to hire.
He is concerned about the lawsuits, but it's something they'll have to get through and write some really big cheques. Like tobacco. Already priced into the stock.
Leadership is smart. Capex is high, but bolstering position in AI. Trades ~17x PE and growing 17%. Yield is 0.32%.
Long ZYNGA (ZNGA-q) and Short Facebook (FB-Q)? A pairs trade that he would probably not put on in his funds. Zunga is interesting but its business model has run into a lot of problems and come under a lot of pressure. One of those sort of failed tech IPOs but is a very beaten up stock. Has quite a bit of cash on their balance sheet. This one, on the other hand, is a really good business, great company but expensive. Has always found with pairs trade that trying to buy a value, kind of “not great” company at a low price and short a really good company at an expensive valuation to play that spread, typically does not work out well.