Latest news with #MarkZuckerberg
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Famous Investor Remains Very Upbeat on META Platforms (META)
Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) and its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, are "delivering" and "executing," while the tech giant's "fundamentals" are strong, Stephanie Link, who frequently appears on CNBC, said on the channel recently. Link is the Chief Investment Strategist at Hightower Advisors. The advertising behemoth delivered "the best" first-quarter earnings out of all of the Mag 7 names, Link said. In addition to providing "beat-and-raise" earnings, Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) generated revenue growth of 16% in Q1, versus the same period a year earlier, Link noted. Additionally, its margins climbed 3.6 percentage points year-over-year, the famous investor pointed out. Calling the overall results "remarkable," Link added that Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)'s free cash flow, capital spending, and operating expenditures "all (moved) in the right direction." Finally, she is pleased with Meta's decision to continue investing heavily in AI. In the last month, the shares have climbed 17%, while they have fallen 5% in the last three months. While we acknowledge the potential of META as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than META and that has 100x upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock. READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires. Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey. Sign in to access your portfolio
Business Insider
3 hours ago
- Business
- Business Insider
Analysts Remain Bullish on Meta Platforms Stock Despite Near-Term Headwinds
Meta Platforms (META) stock has risen 16.3% over the past month and is up 10.2% year-to-date. The company impressed investors with its market-beating first-quarter results. However, macro uncertainty and tariff wars could weigh on ad spend and impact Meta's performance. Despite near-term headwinds, most Wall Street analysts remain bullish on META stock, as they are confident about the social media giant's strong positioning, solid execution, and resilience. Confident Investing Starts Here: Meta Platforms' Impressive Performance Meta Platforms topped analysts' Q1 2025 revenue and earnings estimates, with its ad revenue rising 16% to $41.4 billion. Moreover, the company reported a 6% increase in daily active users across its family of apps (Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp) to 3.43 billion. The company is leveraging AI (artificial intelligence) to enhance its tools. Meta's artificial intelligence assistant, Meta AI, now has one billion monthly active users across the company's family of apps. While Meta Platforms lowered its full-year expenses outlook, it raised its capex guidance to the range of $64-$72 billion from $60-65 billion for additional data center investments to support its AI initiatives and a rise in the expected cost of infrastructure hardware. Overall, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg expressed confidence in navigating the ongoing macro uncertainties. Analysts' Views on META Stock's Growth Trajectory Recently, Loop Capital analyst Rob Sanderson increased the price target for Meta Platforms stock to $888 from $695 and maintained a Buy rating, citing the company's upbeat Q2 2025 outlook. The 5-star analyst stated that his expectation that a drop in spending intensity from China-based advertisers would flatten revenue growth was a 'misread.' Sanderson believes that META stock remains the best non-hardware example of a tangible, 'right-now beneficiary of AI.' He expects META stock to outperform the Magnificent 7 peer group this year. Likewise, encouraged by the Q1 results and second-quarter outlook, Guggenheim analyst Michael Morris reaffirmed a Buy rating on META stock and increased the price target to $725 from $675. The 5-star analyst noted that management's discussion and outlook focused on continued pursuit of the growth opportunities in AI, engagement, and advertising, with the guidance reflecting the impact of macro uncertainty, demand headwinds from Asian e-commerce exporters, and healthy April ad trends. Morris believes that overall, Meta Platforms indicated that demand across its portfolio remains strong, as reflected in the 6% user growth, 5% impression growth, and 10% ad pricing growth. META's enhanced engagement is driven by AI developments, primarily through improved content recommendations, noted the analyst. Overall, Morris continues to view Meta as the 'best positioned digital ad player,' particularly as more supply is expected to come online later this year. Is META a Good Stock to Buy? With 41 Buys, three Holds, and one Sell recommendation, Wall Street has a Strong Buy recommendation on Meta Platforms stock. The average of $696.12 implies about 8% upside potential from current levels.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Warren Buffett Net Worth Soars In 2025: Oracle Of Omaha Worth As Much As Jensen Huang, Phil Knight, Mark Cuban Combined
With the stock market struggling in 2025, only four of the world's 10 richest people have added to their wealth in 2025, with one of the four being legendary investor Warren Buffett. What Happened: Buffett has a history of beating the S&P 500 performance each year with his Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK)(NYSE:BRK) conglomerate. While not all stocks owned by Berkshire are up in 2025, the company has several winners and some of its owned segments are performing well, leading to shares being up 12.2% year-to-date and beating the 0.9% gain in 2025 from the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY). Don't Miss: Maker of the $60,000 foldable home has 3 factory buildings, 600+ houses built, and big plans to solve housing — this is your last chance to become an investor for $0.80 per share. The team behind $6B+ in licensing deals is now building the next billion-dollar IP empire — invest early at $2.25/share. With Berkshire Hathaway stock up, Buffett has added $15.4 billion to his wealth in 2025, as reported by Bloomberg. Buffett currently ranks seventh on the world's richest list and his $15.4 billion gain is the third best in 2025, trailing only Bill Gates (+$20.1 billion) and Mark Zuckerberg (+$15.8 billion). To put Buffett's wealth and gain into perspective, the billionaire known as the Oracle of Omaha is now as rich as these three individuals combined. Jensen Huang, NVIDIA CEO: $118 billion Phil Knight, Nike co-founder and former CEO: $30.8 billion Mark Cuban, investor and NBA owner: $8.2 billion That's right, add up those three billionaires and you reach the same $157 billion wealth of Buffett. With Nike stock down 16.6% year-to-date in 2025, Knight has lost $3.6 billion in wealth in 2025 and currently ranks 60th on the billionaires list. Cuban has gained $366 million in wealth in 2025. Huang is up $3.6 billion year-to-date. The 2025 year is less than halfway over, which means the wealth of all four individuals could change substantially before the end of the year. Read Next: Hasbro, MGM, and Skechers trust this AI marketing firm — Invest before it's too late. Deloitte's fastest-growing software company partners with Amazon, Walmart & Target – Many are rushing to grab 4,000 of its pre-IPO shares for just $0.30/share! Photo: Kent Sievers via Shutterstock Send To MSN: Send to MSN UNLOCKED: 5 NEW TRADES EVERY WEEK. Click now to get top trade ideas daily, plus unlimited access to cutting-edge tools and strategies to gain an edge in the markets. Get the latest stock analysis from Benzinga? This article Warren Buffett Net Worth Soars In 2025: Oracle Of Omaha Worth As Much As Jensen Huang, Phil Knight, Mark Cuban Combined originally appeared on Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
Epoch Times
7 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Epoch Times
AI Friends Are Not Your Friends, Here's Why
Science fiction prepared us for AI friends through films like 'Her' and 'Robot & Frank.' Now, that fictional portrayal is becoming a reality. In a recent podcast, Mark Zuckerberg proposed and endorsed the idea that Americans are in dire need of social connection, and that bots could fill the need.
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
LinkedIn cuts 281 workers in California as tech layoffs continue
LinkedIn, the professional social network where people search for work, is shedding jobs. The Microsoft-owned tech company has cut 281 workers in California, a notice filed this week to the California Employment Development Department shows. Earlier this month, Microsoft said that it was terminating 3% of staff, or about 6,000 workers. The layoffs affected its California employees and LinkedIn workers. LinkedIn is among major tech companies that have slashed its workforce this year. Meta, Google, Autodesk and other tech companies have also been cutting workers, citing various reasons, including restructuring, investments in artificial intelligence and low worker performance. Read more: Bay Area tech workers thought their jobs were safe. Then the 'golden handcuffs' came off LinkedIn, headquartered in Sunnyvale and Mountain View, notified its employees about the layoffs on May 13. Workers posted about their pink slips on the social network, letting hiring managers and recruiters know that they were open to work. The company didn't respond to a request for comment. Its website says it has roughly 18,400 employees and offices in more than 30 cities globally. LinkedIn's California layoffs affected workers at its offices in San Francisco, Mountain View, Carpinteria and Sunnyvale. More than half of those cuts hit its workforce in Mountain View. Software engineers were heavily impacted by LinkedIn's California layoffs, according to data provided to the state. Talent account directors, senior product managers and other workers also lost their jobs. The cuts come as tech companies are releasing more artificial intelligence-powered tools that can generate code. Executives have also said that would impact engineering jobs. Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella said in April that as much as 30% of the company's code is written by AI during a conversation with Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg at the social network's AI developer conference. As Microsoft competes to release more AI tools, the company has said that it's trying to increase how fast it moves by reducing the number of managers and cutting down on redundancies. It's the latest cost-cutting round at LinkedIn. In 2023, the company laid off nearly 700 employees and said that it was trying to improve agility and accountability as part of a reorganization effort. Microsoft purchased LinkedIn for $26 billion in 2016. In April, the company reported that its revenue in the third fiscal year quarter reached $4.3 billion in the third fiscal year quarter, up 7% over last year. Sign up for our Wide Shot newsletter to get the latest entertainment business news, analysis and insights. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. Sign in to access your portfolio
