Meta Platforms, Inc. (META)

It continues its record rally today. Last night, they increased their dividend by 5%. It's the cheapest Mag 7 in PE and have delivered strong. They've bought back $44 billion of shares in the past year. Massive free cash flow. He hopes there's a stock split.

Of the Mag 7, he likes this, but it's tough to buy at currently high levels. For an options trade: sell that $650 put (almost 10% downside) into May, then collect $21.50, which is a large premium, but huge downside protection.

Their earnings growth + PE was the most reasonable last year and entering this. Earnings continue to grow and are controlling spending. Is the best of the Mag 7.

Owns it but has been totally wrong in not owning it in excess. Even after this run, it remains the cheapest Mag 7 stock at 25x forward PE and the only with good relative strength.

Meta has executed the best of the Mag 7. The market forgives them even for expanding their capex.

DeepSeek was a wake-up call that Meta is spending heavily in open-source. She expects an ROI here. Meta is an ad company and can monetize AI quickly as opposed to Google and the other Mag 7 that are questionable.

Reported after the bell top and bottom line beats and tremendous free cash flow, plus a conservative outlook. Considering the strength of this past quarter, it's fine to look past that soft outlook.

Does now own shares anymore despite excellent stock performance. Not sure how revenues will increase as user growth plateaus. Has re-invested into Tesla. Owned shares for 10 years before selling. 

It reports Wednesday. A wild card. They have Tik Tok in their sights.

Super profitable. Each dollar earned, 80 cents drops to the operating line. They invest massively so they continue to improve their product. Trades at 20x future PE. Cheap given growth is 3x the average company. The big investments in the metaverse will eventually flow back. Gaming always seen technological advancement first (i.e. Nvidia's videogame cards)l; the Orion glasses have potential and are 3 years ahead of Apple and could be a game-changer.

He owns it in the dividend strategy fund since it has the ability to increase its dividend. There is lots of power consolidation. It can monetize AI which should be a quicker process than the Internet was in general. It has new services and is able to be on the cutting edge.     Buy 68  Hold 9  Sell 3

It's the only Mag 7 stock she's ever owned, and she has trimmed it a few times, because it's pretty rich now. But earnings growth is still a good 40% new year then mid-teens after that. The valuation looks decent. The other Mag 7 lack good free cash flow and growth rates.

Likes it for the hardware and software. They bring AI to the masses through Instagram and Reels. Cost-cutting from the metaverse has shifted slightly into spending on AI. This will pay off. It had an amazing 2024 and will have an amazing 2025. Is expecting dividend growth and he hopes a stock split. Share buybacks have reduced the float by 10% in the last 3 years. Meta is his top pick for 2025.

The correction, he thinks, is over, and shares will return to previous highs.

The case for them isn't as strong as it used to be. Daily active users doesn't matter anymore compared to ad growth. Chinese companies, namely Temu, have spent a lot on FB ads. But the number of Temu users have been declining and with that Facebook's growth rate.