Top 5 Stocks in Lee Ainslie’s Portfolio

3. Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 220
Maverick Capital % Portfolio:  4.28%

Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META) develops products that help people connect and share with friends and family via mobile devices and personal computers. After coming under pressure last year, the company has seen its fortune improve in 2023 after an aggressive restructuring drive. The restructuring has resulted in massive layoffs and increased focus on artificial intelligence. Increased user engagement in its flagship apps has helped strengthen its advertising business amid increased ad spending.

Maverick Capital has seen its investment in Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META) pay up as the stock is up by about 150% year to date. The stock accounts for about 4.28% of the hedge fund portfolio. Stifel’s Mark Kelley reiterated a Buy rating on Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META) and increased the stock’s target price from $280 to $336 on July 21.

According to Insider Monkey’s database, 220 hedge funds were long Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) as of Q1 2023. The total value of their holdings was $25.09 billion. Philippe Laffont’s Coatue Management is a significant shareholder in the company, with 8.06 million shares valued at $1.71 billion.

In the investor letter for the second quarter of 2023, Wedgewood Partners shared its perspective on Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META).

“Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) was the top contributor to performance during the quarter. The Company managed to grow adjusted expenses more in line with revenue growth, which helped re-establish managements credibility with investors with respect to future profitability and returns. The Company also guided to accelerated revenue growth as product investments are beginning to bear fruit relative to easier comparisons from a year ago. Meta has been at the forefront of investing in some of the most valuable artificial intelligence IP extant, particularly with its ranking and recommendation systems that are in use across its suite of user-facing products and advertiser-facing tools. Despite the recent frenzy of attention around “Gen-AI,” Meta has been researching and developing generative-AI tools for years, so we don’t expect to see a large ramp up in expenses around this phenomenon. Although we trimmed Meta as positions reached our maximum weighting, it ended the quarter as our largest holding.”