Bill Ackman turned heads when adding a large position in Meta Platforms (META 2.41%) to his portfolio. The billionaire investor is well known for making big, concentrated long-term bets, and he took a roughly $1.8 billion position in the social media king in Q4 to make it his fifth-largest position.
In an investor presentation, Ackman called Meta "deeply discounted" for one of the "world's greatest businesses." While many investors have been critical of Meta's current aggressive artificial intelligence (AI) spending plans, Ackman praised them, saying that its strong balance sheet and core business give it the resources to aggressively invest in data center infrastructure and talent.
At the same time, he sees the company as having one of the best business models to leverage AI to its advantage. The company is already using AI to both improve user engagement and serve more relevant ads. It's also providing AI tools to advertisers to help automate and create better campaigns. Ackman also sees Meta having an opportunity to use AI in other areas to spur growth, including business AI assistants and wearable devices.
NASDAQ: META
Key Data Points
Should investors follow Ackman and buy Meta Platforms?
Having bought shares of Meta in late December myself, I agree with Ackman's assessment. While AI infrastructure spending fears have pushed the stock down, the company has been getting a strong return on its AI investments. Yes, it's a disappointment that its investments in Realty Labs, home to its metaverse, look like it will be a wasteful miscalculation, but a pivot to AI is a smart move.
Meanwhile, the company has been hitting on all cylinders, fueled by AI. In Q4, its revenue growth accelerated to 24%, powered by an 18% jump in ad impressions and a 6% rise in ad prices. The company is also still adding users to its already massive social media platform, with family daily active people (DAP), a measurement of registered users who log into one of Meta's apps daily, climbing by 7% year over year to 3.58 billion.
Image source: Getty Images.
Even more impressive, Meta projected that its revenue growth would continue to accelerate in Q1, with projections of growth between 26% to 34%. The company also has a big opportunity as it slowly rolls out ads to its WhatsApp messaging platform and new social media platform Threads. WhatsApp has over 3 billion monthly users, representing a big opportunity, while Threads is still in its relatively early stages of development.
With Meta's stock down over the past year, it finds itself trading at a forward P/E of just 21, making the stock attractively valued given its market position and growth. I'd be a buyer at current levels.
