Meta Platforms, Inc. (META)

Last night's earnings were phenomenal. They didn't have to spend $14 billion this year on data centres and hiring to police posts. FB hurt their own earnings on purpose. These costs will eventually subside while FB enjoys phenomenal earnings. They're spending money in advance of huge data consumption in Instagram and WhatsApp--they're ahead of the curve. The potential is limitless with FB. Has tremendous upside. Trading at only 20x earnings. The headlines have taken over but investors should look at FB's tremendous fundamentals. Yes, there are anti-trust risks to all these companies, but the upside is big.

He does not anticipating anything in particular to happen with earnings. They have guided toward higher operating expenditures. Normally they don't spend as much as they guide to. He got out because of declining engagement on their platforms. Core growth is from Instagram. He prefers AMZN-Q because they get a lot of advertizing dollars. He prefers it over GOOGL-Q also.

They report next week. He doesn't think they'll be in the doghouse much longer. He sees 25% EPS growth. One third of the planet are clients to monetize. The stock may drop further, but in 3-4 months, you won't lose. FB will rise again.

Ad dollars are shifting from print to digital. Google, Facebook and Amazon are basically a money tunnel, collecting that ad revenue. But he worries about regulations against Facebook, given the 2016 U.S. election, while others are unhappy with the content FB is including. So, nobody is happy with FB. Data breaches don't help.

Does not fit into their valuation they are looking at right now. They sold it in the spring. Big risk for this space is the regulatory moves, which can be very punitive. They are investing in security that they did not have to before. There is a cloud hanging over Facebook. Not on their list right now.

(Past Top Pick Aug.22, 2018, Down 8%) Still believes in it. He doesn't expect blowout earnings, since from August to now we're still in negative sentiment. Even now with all this negativitiy, FB is doing $20-billion cash a year. Who else does that? Companies like this are very good at managing expenses.

The big issue is how they deal with people use FB to subvert elections. Will this have an effect on their next numbers? Also, how do they monetize Instagram? Some management turmoil here. Also FB usage is down, though Instagram use is up. Google is easier to understand from an online ad perspective.

Recent news good? Doesn’t think the Instagram founder’s leaving is negative, though the security breach is. Trading at 17x 2020 earnings. Took down growth, probably being conservative. Modelling 25% share growth, trading at a market multiple, for something that’s this disruptive, it’s a really good deal. You can buy it.

It's starting to breakdown, meaning it's broken through its moving average. If it takes out its last low of $160, FB is in trouble. Some tech stocks are breaking down like this.