Hedge fund manager Dan Niles is particularly bullish on one tech stock going in to 2025. That stock is Meta Platforms — the tech giant behind social media platforms Facebook and Instagram as well as instant messaging app WhatsApp. Niles, who runs an actively managed fund of 20 to 40 large-cap U.S. stocks at Niles Investment Management , highlighted that the company has been using artificial intelligence effectively in their internal platforms. For instance, the company is able to preempt the kind of videos and advertisements a user would like to see, through AI algorithms, he explained. “That’s generating much better revenues and profitability for the company … They beat revenues, they beat EPS (earnings per share) for the June quarter,” Niles told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Oct. 3. His comments come as Meta’s second-quarter results surpassed Wall Street’s expectations with earnings per share coming in at $5.16 — compared to $4.73 expected — while revenue was $39.07 billion, vs. $38.31 billion penciled. The tech giant has provided revenue guidance of $38.5 billion to $41 billion for the third quarter. Shares in Meta have had a bumpy ride over the past few days but remain up 63% year-to-date. META YTD mountain Year-to-date shares in Meta Platforms Meta is among the so-called “Magnificent Seven” stocks that several investors have been looking at favorably this year. The other stocks on the list are Alphabet , Amazon , Apple , Microsoft , Nvidia and Tesla . Meta’s “really the one that’s using AI the best internally,” Niles noted. The veteran investor described his investment style as one seeking “growth at a reasonable price” while also wanting “to see a return on AI.” He expects the tech giant to benefit from the upcoming “highly contested” U.S. presidential elections in November, which will see “a lot of ad dollars being spent.” “Here’s the really nice thing, you can get it for much more than a market multiple and that’s much better better than market growth and for a company that’s using AI the best. And so that’s why, for me, I like Meta looking into next year as well, because of all those different factors, reasonable valuation, good growth and an AI play,” Niles added. Of 69 analysts covering the stock, 59 give it a buy or overweight rating, eight have a hold call and two have either an underweight or sell rating, according to FactSet data. The stock’s average price target of $588.61 gives it upside potential of 2.8%. ‘Premium name’ In addition to Meta, Niles is also keeping a watch on chipmaker Nvidia . This artificial intelligence darling continues to make headlines, with the stock up nearly 140% over the year. NVDA YTD mountain Year-to-date shares in Nvidia Calling it a “premium name,” Niles said “nobody is even close to not only the chips they provide but the bigger thing which people don’t spend enough time on [which] is software.” He is particularly positive of the potential of CUDA — a programming language for graphic processing units developed by Nvidia — which is further adding to its dominance of the AI chip market. Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang has “done a masterful job of getting [CUDA] into things like universities and just getting everybody, all the engineers, used to using that, and as an ex-engineer myself, once you get used to something, you don’t want to switch,” Niles said. “You combine that with the fact that they have the best hardware on the planet, they’re in the pole position for a very, very long time, and I think it’s hard for anybody to displace them.” According to FactSet data, of the 65 analysts covering the stock, 60 give it a buy or overweight rating, while just five have a hold rating. Analysts’ average price target is $149.54, giving it 25.%8 potential upside.
