
NASDAQ:META
(A Top Pick April 6/17, Up 22%) Today's news: It's a big issue about how people's data is being used, referring to Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election. Is this a data breach? Is this noise? This is tough for FB to defend. Enjoys huge user growth and revenue per user is up 28%. They're killing it, doing everything right. They have $42 billion USD in case to repatriate, so they have enormous cash flow. But he needs to see the smoke clear and wouldn't step in now. Very well set-up for secular growth.
He does hold it, but it is not one of his favorite holdings. The big concern is that they have been growing through price based growth instead of increased volume and advertising. It can do well for the next few years. It has an attractive free cash flow multiple. He sees them considering a dividend policy being required.
(A Top Pick Mar. 16/17, Up 23%) Owned this for a long time and happy with the returns. Has gotten into trouble from alleged "fake news" but have taken steps to alleviate that. Like their long-term focus with less corporate and advertising and more family-friendly. This will retain their users. Also have lots of applications. Lots of room to grown and monetize their brands.
Thought the earnings today were good. One thing people are concerned about is that the number of users in the US was down quarter over quarter, so they're going through a change up in the news feed. Thinks they have a very large opportunity to monetize the space they have. The social media theme is one that has a long way to run.
(A Top Pick Jan 26/17. Up 40.92%.) When you've got 2 billion active users plus, and a higher and higher percentage of your audience is using mobile apps there is more face time, which is a dream from a producers' standpoint, because advertisers want to pay more for that. But still, the advertising business has not caught up with the social media. There is still a long way to go for companies like this.
Her portfolios don't have much that touches the end consumer, just because of how quickly consumers change their minds. Recent surveys showing usage trends seem to be down on the younger age groups. That is always a concern with companies like this, especially when it is trading at its current valuation multiple. If consumers changed how they viewed this company, that could be disastrous for the share price.
There's hope for it. Trading at 22 forward earnings which is pretty good in this market. Sure, there are some risks, but they have 2 billion active users. There aren't many alternative apps to FB. They will lose some users on the margins and costs were rising, so he sold a bit recently. But this is not a disaster waiting to happen. Not at all. There is growth ahead. Nobody monetizes their app better than FB, turning viewers into ad dollars.