Meta Platforms, Inc. (META)

1.5 billion users, which is part of the thesis of why he owns the stock. It is the best stock to own in the social media space. It gives you the opportunity to accumulate ownership in the world’s largest social media company. They are forecasted to grow their long-term earnings by 25% a year.

(Covered Calls. He is playing the last half of the year by taking some option premiums in with he expects that these 3 Top Picks will hold their own or rise. Yield on the total return is pretty attractive. Thinks we could be in a flat market until the end of the year.) The shares are at around $95 and you are selling a $100 Call. This is a little more volatile so you are getting a higher premium. There are no dividends. If it closes above $100 in January, it gives you better than 11%. If it stays the same, your return is over 5%. This is taxed as a capital gain in Canada.

A large holding of his. He is not afraid to go with what is working. A great job of mobile advertising. They continue to execute well and do a great job. Pick your stop. They have some natural tailwinds.

They have certainly disrupted a lot of the industry on the ability to advertise. The problem for her is the valuation, which is quite rich. You are paying a lot today for their ability to monetize the usage. These are not the types of bets that she likes to make.

Buy, Sell or Hold Facebook? Is there a withholding tax on the gains? There is no withholding tax on gains when you sell US stocks.There is a withholding tax when you sell dividends. He doesn't own Facebook. It is a difficult company to analyse .He gives them a tremendous amount of credit that they are able to make money off mobile devices. They have 1.6 billion users, are crushing twitter. “They are the game in town.” It is an expensive stock, but he is not buying at this price.

After the IPO it was out of favour as people were concerned about the transition from desktop to mobile, and how they were going to handle it. They have done an amazing job. Average smart phone users are on the site about 45 minutes of daily use. He likes the stock. The challenge has been that it is expensive, but it has grown into that number. Trading around 30-35 times next year’s earnings, and if you are going to grow 40%, that is fairly reasonable.

The numbers are great and the margins are there. This is a super story. He loves the long-term approach they are taking. They are taking their time. Have hit all of their metrics so far. There is a lot of news coming on it now where that can be a real disruption as to where people get their news. Too richly valued for him.

This now has all the ducks in a row and is really ready to deliver. It is a bit of a reach on a PE basis, but when you look at who is going to do well in the future, this one stands out. This is a sector that he thinks is going to grow so well that you have to have some of it in your portfolio. 73% of revenues come from mobile sources.

Advertising is a huge market and what we are seeing is a massive shift. 20 years ago print was the big ad market. This company is one of the beneficiaries on that shift. He is still on the fence on this. He would like to see more out of them before investing. A really expensive stock, so he would wait for a pullback before getting involved.

Not a deep value stock, but he has to admire companies that have been able to deliver great growth, evolve their business model in a very short period of time and be able to figure out what advertisers and consumers are looking for and monetize that.

Dropped about 10% off its highs. This is in the face of some of their competitors reporting results that have largely been panned by the market. This company’s results were quite good. The opportunity on this company is immense. There is a lot of runway here. A lot of the 10% fall back is market related. A little bit of nervousness because of their peer group. Longer-term he feels this is a stock that is going to do quite well.

Really admires the company. Has done an outstanding job. Has owned this off and on and wishes he had never sold. They have done a fantastic job of growing the business. Thinks virtual reality is going to be a big thing, not just for gaming but also for shopping, education and training. Has a very large ecosystem of people and are able to monetize it. Trading at a rich valuation, but not at an outrageous one.

A nice breakout. From a seasonable standpoint it is not something he would be interested in but from a technical point of view it looks strong. If it breaks below $83 it would be time to step out.

Has been looking at this for a long time and what put him over the top was the sheer size of having 1.39 billion in monthly average users. Some of their purchases such as Instagram and Messenger are doing incredibly well. Also, the advertising trends are very exciting. Mobile for example, which grew 100% year-over-year, is leading the way from an advertising standpoint with Facebook. However, when you look at the statistics, 25% of the US adult media time is done on Mobile, yet only 11% of advertising dollars are aimed at Mobile. There is a lot of room to catch up, so that will be in favour for Facebook. He sees another Google coming along.

Had owned this shortly after the IPO. A great story and the execution has been very, very strong. However, it is way too expensive at these prices.