Stock price when the opinion was issued
The stock has made a bit of a 'round trip' from its recent highs but considering its strength, market share, financial position and growth, at 23X earnings (with $77B cash) we think it is buyable for investors who can look beyond the current market volatility (which will end, one day).
Unlock Premium - Try 5i Free
META has a dominant market position in social media, its monthly active users exceeds 3 billion, and it is investing in AI. It is a cash flow machine, generating $52B in free cash flow over the past 12 months, it has grown sales by 19% over the past 12 months, and earnings growth is 47% over the past 12 months. It is currently priced at 23.7X forward earnings, which for a company rapidly growing sales and earnings, we feel is fairly cheap, although it can be cyclical depending on enterprise ad budgets.
Unlock Premium - Try 5i Free
He has been buying tech during this dip, in April particularly. We will eventually exit this volatility and find stability and confidence in the market again. Meta and Microsoft are some of his key holdings, and they affirmed their capex guidance--they are spending to make incredible investments over the next three years, because they know AI is the biggest super-cycle every in technology. There is incredible pent-up demand for AI from businesses and consumers. The CEO of MSFT reported that his company processed 50 trillion tokens last month alone, or 3.5 million years of AI conversation.
A month ago, he reduced his tech holdings a lot. Thirst for AI continues pretty strong. Economic environment would have to be pretty tough for this name to go down too much more, but that could happen.
Both names are great. MSFT is a bit more expensive. META can suffer more on advertising if we go into a tougher economic environment. If you're confident that Trump wants to win the midterms and wants to be popular, and that we're going to avoid the worst-case outcome, you can buy both at these levels. Between the two, META gets the nod.