Wedgewood Partners, an investment management firm, published its first-quarter 2022 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. For the first quarter of 2022, the fund’s Composite (net) declined by -10.6%. The S&P 500 Index declined by -4.6%. The Russell 1000 Growth Index declined -by 9.0%, while the Russell 1000 Value Index declined -by 0.7%. Try to spend some time taking a look at the fund’s top 5 holdings to be informed about their best picks for 2022.
In its Q1 2022 investor letter, Wedgewood Partners mentioned Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) and explained its insights for the company. Founded in 2004, Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) is a Menlo Park, California-based multinational technology conglomerate with a $570.5 billion market capitalization. Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) delivered a -37.51% return since the beginning of the year, while its 12-month returns are down by -31.72%. The stock closed at $210.18 per share on April 15, 2022.
Here is what Wedgewood Partners has to say about Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) in its Q1 2022 investor letter:
“Meta detracted from performance during the quarter after the stock pulled back as investors worried about the Company’s revenue growth and competitive positioning. Although the Company’s revenues grew “just” +9% during the first quarter, this growth rate was compared to a stunning +48% growth rate in the year ago first quarter. So, while the Company’s revenue guide for the current second quarter is also in the mid-single digit percentage growth – disappointing many investors – we will note that is compared to a staggering 56% growth rate during the second quarter last year. As most of the globe reopens from COVID restrictions, Meta’s core Family of Apps are as relevant as ever, boasting nearly 3 billion daily users – almost a third of the entire planet logs onto the Company’s apps at least once a day. This exorbitant privilege allows Meta to quickly copy and massively scale new features to ward off competitive overtures from smaller social media rivals. Further, because Apple has introduced privacy restrictions on its platform – muddying advertisers’ ability to track the performance of advertising spend during the past few quarters – Meta has introduced alternative measuring tools and processes that will relegate this risk to a transient headwind. Last, because the market pressured Meta’s forward earnings multiple to historically low levels, we are encouraged that the Company spent $45 billion repurchasing its stock over the past 12 months. Meta’s repurchase activity was more than four times as much as the Company spent on the headline-grabbing “Reality Labs” segment during 2021. We expect highly accretive repurchase activity to continue. We also took this opportunity to add to Meta, exiting the quarter with Meta as a top weighting.”
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Our calculations show that Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) ranks 3rd on our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) was in 224 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the fourth quarter of 2021, compared to 248 funds in the previous quarter. Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) delivered a -35.62% return in the past 3 months.
In March 2022, we published an article that includes Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) in another article. You can find other investor letters from hedge funds and prominent investors on our hedge fund investor letters 2022 Q1 page.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
