3. Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:FB)
Point72 Asset Management’s Stake Value: $295,963,000
Percentage of Point72 Asset Management’s 13F Portfolio: 1.29%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 248
Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) is the parent company of leading social media platforms, namely Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. The recent rebranding of Facebook Inc. to Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) represents the company’s focus on building the metaverse. Steve Cohen, via Point72 Asset Management, holds an approximately $296 million stake in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:FB), which accounts for 1.29% of the firm’s total securities.
On October 25, Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) posted its Q3 results, announcing an EPS of $3.22, exceeding estimates by $0.04. The $29.01 billion revenue increased 35.12% year-over-year, but missed estimates by $513.23 million.
Loop Capital analyst Alan Gould on December 20 lowered the price target on Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) to $380 from $420 but kept a Buy rating on the shares. According to the analyst, the magnitude of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:FB)’s spending on the metaverse over the next several years and how rapidly the spending at Facebook Reality Labs will increase from the $10 billion spent in 2021 will be a key focus for investors.
Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) is a popular stock among the hedge funds, as 248 funds reported owning stakes in the company as of Q3 2021, worth $38.5 billion. Fisher Asset Management, one of the leading Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) stakeholders, increased its stake in the company by 54% in the third quarter, holding 7.5 million shares worth $2.44 billion.
Here is what Canterbury Tollgate has to say about Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) in its Q3 2021 investor letter:
“To say traditional media is anti-Facebook would not be an overstatement. An already intense and multi-year critique of (or attack on) Facebook has ratcheted up in recent weeks. Facebook’s research efforts have been reported on, if often derided, for nearly a decade. Going back to 2014, Slate.com called their research practices “unethical” when FB tried to study the impact social posts had on users. Now those efforts have been turned against them for the kill shot.
My job is to observe, assess, and allocate. Not to commentate on all the whims and wishes of media narrative. However, in the case of Facebook I cannot avoid going into some detail re: the onslaught against them, which I find to be most unwarranted and insincere.
Last month the Wall Street Journal ran a five-piece series titled “The Facebook Files” which allegedly shows how toxic Instagram is for teens. The foundation of their argument was a single slide from an internal presentation claiming, based on FB’s own research, that of teens who had a negative self-image, one-third said Instagram “made them feel worse.”iii Somehow the implication here is that this is not an inescapable aspect of either the human psyche and/or society-at large, but that it is of Facebook’s doing…” (Click here to see the full text)
