Meta Platforms sets a new template for high valuations in tech stocks! Wall Street: Want AI, want profits, and starting to seek dividends!
Analysis suggests that the growth of tech giants will slow down, and the demand for capital allocation measures is likely to increase.
As the era of high growth is gone, tech giants need to take capital allocation measures to attract investors.
For a long time, the tech industry has been inclined to use cash for reinvestment, increasing hiring, and trying out new projects. However, after a year of significant layoffs and tightened spending, Meta Platforms announced its "historic first dividend" on Thursday, with a dividend of $0.50 per share, and also approved a $50 billion stock repurchase plan.
Ben Barringer, an analyst at Quilter Cheviot, pointed out:
The dividend distribution by Meta Platforms is symbolic, as Zuckerberg indicates that he wants shareholders to grow with him and emphasizes that Meta Platforms is now a mature large-scale enterprise.
After Meta Platforms announced its first-ever dividend, Wall Street's expectations for dividends from Alphabet-C and Amazon have increased.
Amazon is not as proactive in distributing cash to shareholders. The company announced a $10 billion repurchase plan in 2022 and has not made any further announcements since then.
During Thursday's earnings conference call, Morgan Stanley analyst Brian Nowak asked about plans for additional capital returns. Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky responded that Amazon discusses capital allocation structures more frequently, but currently, the company has nothing to announce.
Analysts predict that by the end of this year, Meta Platforms' revenue growth will fall to below 10%, and the growth expectations for Amazon and Alphabet-C are even lower. This clearly indicates that the demand for capital allocation measures is likely to increase.
In addition, Meta Platforms is sprinting into artificial intelligence, as Zuckerberg stated that this new generation of AI will generate a large number of excellent assistants, which will be one of the main values of this AI generation. It is expected that Meta Platforms will promote its AI assistant to more apps within Meta Platforms in 2024 or later.