RiverPark Advisors, an investment advisory firm and sponsor of the RiverPark family of mutual funds, released its “RiverPark Large Growth Fund” third quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. During the third quarter, the markets performed strongly with the Russell 1000 Growth Index (RLG) and the S&P 500 index returning 3.19% and 5.89% respectively and RPX returning 3.73%. A weaker-than-expected jobs report that raised fears of a coming recession caused the RLG to drop 8.8% from the end of June to the fifth of August, giving the quarter a rocky start. As China passed a significant stimulus package and the Fed began its rate-cutting cycle with a 0.50% decrease to a goal of 4.75%-5.00%, those losses quickly reversed. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
RiverPark Large Growth Fund highlighted stocks like Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META), in the third quarter 2024 investor letter. Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) is a technology company that develops products to connect people. The one-month return of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) was 9.53%, and its shares gained 77.35% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On December 17, 2024, Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) stock closed at $619.44 per share with a market capitalization of $1.564 trillion.
RiverPark Large Growth Fund stated the following regarding Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) in its Q3 2024 investor letter:
“Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META): Meta was our best performer in the third quarter after reporting a strong second quarter, including revenue of $39 billion (+22% y/y) and EPS of $5.16 (+73% y/y), both ahead of consensus expectations. Better than expected advertising revenue was driven by strength in key verticals including E-Commerce, Gaming and Entertainment, and Media. The company gave revenue guidance for Q3 that was ahead of investor expectations, driven by continued growth from Reels and Messaging (WhatsApp US users reached 100m+).
META owns multiple social media platforms, each with more than one billion users, has an 81% gross margin, and generated $44 billion of FCF in 2023. Both its Facebook and its Instagram franchises have more than 2 billion Daily Active Users and generate the bulk of the company’s revenue. Recently, the company’s short form video offering, Reels, and public text-sharing app, Threads, achieved mass user engagement and growing advertiser adoption, which have helped return the company to strong revenue and free cash flow growth. Even after this year’s 62% stock price appreciation, META shares trade at 23.5x Wall Street’s consensus estimates for 2025 EPS, estimates that we think could prove to be too low.”
A team of developers working in unison to create the company’s messaging application.
Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) is in third position on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 235 hedge fund portfolios held Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) at the end of the third quarter which was 219 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is as promising as NVIDIA but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
In another article, we discussed Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) and shared billionaire Daniel Sundheim’s top stock picks heading into 2025. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q3 2024 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.
READ NEXT: Michael Burry Is Selling These Stocks and A New Dawn Is Coming to US Stocks.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.