Shares of Meta Platforms (META 1.57%) had been among the many winners final month. The social media inventory took off after the inauguration, benefiting from a possible TikTok ban, the corporate’s more and more cozy relationship with President Donald Trump, information of elevated funding in synthetic intelligence (AI), and even the DeepSeek revelation.
Towards the tip of the month, the inventory additionally jumped on stellar leads to its fourth-quarter earnings report.
In accordance with information from S&P World Market Intelligence, the inventory completed the month up 18%. As you’ll be able to see from the chart under, the inventory took off on the finish of the month following the inauguration.
Meta soars once more
Meta is coming off a formidable 2024 as its inventory surged, its firm delivered spectacular quarterly outcomes, and it completed the 12 months with probably the most used AI assistant, Meta AI.
Buyers guess that momentum in January would proceed because the tech big appeared nicely positioned to profit from various traits within the business.
First, whereas President Trump quickly suspended the TikTok ban, the adverse consideration across the Chinese language video-sharing app may gain advantage Meta, and a sale to an American proprietor might weaken its algorithm, favoring Meta properties like Fb and Instagram.
Shares rose broadly following the inauguration, and buyers count on Meta to profit from a friendlier enterprise atmosphere beneath the Trump administration, which might additionally embrace tax cuts.
Within the final week of January, when AI shares obtained hammered by the DeepSeek launch, Meta was one of many uncommon winners within the sector as buyers appeared to imagine that DeepSeek’s open-source mannequin validated Meta’s personal open-source strategy. Moreover, Meta doesn’t have a cloud infrastructure enterprise and is extra positioned to profit from basic advances in AI because it grows its social media ecosystem and builds its {hardware} enterprise. The inventory closed up 2% on Jan. 27 at the same time as shares like Nvidia crashed.
To wrap up the month, Meta delivered a blowout earnings report, beating estimates on the highest and backside traces as earnings per share jumped 50% to $8.02.
Picture supply: Getty Photographs.
What’s subsequent for Meta
On the earnings name, CEO Mark Zuckerberg mentioned he anticipated Meta AI to change into the primary AI assistant to have greater than 1 billion customers by the tip of the 12 months, and the corporate additionally has inexperienced shoots in different areas like its Ray-Ban good glasses, of which it bought over 1 million models in 2024.
Its first-quarter steering known as for income development to gradual to between 8% and 15%, however the enterprise appears nicely positioned for an additional sturdy 12 months because it stays on the forefront of AI and its consumer and promoting base continues to develop. Even after the surge in 2024 and final month, the inventory continues to seem like a purchase.
Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market improvement and spokeswoman for Fb and sister to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Idiot’s board of administrators. Jeremy Bowman has positions in Meta Platforms and Nvidia. The Motley Idiot has positions in and recommends Meta Platforms and Nvidia. The Motley Idiot has a disclosure coverage.
