"Over the last three years, the bulls have been in firm control on Wall Street. While several can't-miss trends have provided a boost for the broader market, including the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and the advent of quantum computing, it's the "Magnificent Seven" that have done most of the heavy lifting. The Magnificent Seven represent seven of the most influential companies on Wall Street and account for more than half of all publicly traded stocks to have ever reached the trillion-dollar market cap plateau."
"Meta Platforms is the "worst" performer of the bunch, with an aggregate trailing 10-year return of 539%. However, this social media titan has been crushing the benchmark S&P 500 over the last three years and, following the release of its fourth-quarter operating results, is the top-performing Magnificent Seven stock this year, through the end of January. While Meta's latest operating results highlight several reasons why it makes for a phenomenal long-term investment, it should be noted that the company's board missed a golden opportunity to further ignite retail investor interest in its stock."
"Although AI is the talk of Wall Street, Meta's foundational operating segment continues to be its social media platforms, including Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Threads, and Facebook Messenger, among others. In December, its family of apps attracted an average of 3.58 billion users daily. No other social media-driven company comes close to luring as many people to its platforms daily as Meta. This makes it a logical choice for businesses looking to advertise and affords Meta a substantial degree of ad-pricing power."
Bulls dominated Wall Street over the past three years, with trends like AI and quantum computing fueling gains, while the Magnificent Seven carried much of the market's performance. The Magnificent Seven include the most influential companies and accounted for over half of all stocks that ever hit trillion-dollar market caps, vastly outperforming the S&P 500 over the last decade. Meta Platforms, though the weakest among the seven over ten years, outpaced the S&P 500 in the last three years and led the group this year through January after strong fourth-quarter results. Meta commands massive daily usage and significant ad-pricing power, yet the company board passed on an opportunity to further energize retail investors despite a pristine balance sheet and a durable competitive moat.
Read at The Motley Fool
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