I finally did it. After months of watching from the sidelines, I bought my first Magnificent Seven stock: Meta Platforms (META).
A small position — deliberately. Meta trades at several hundred dollars a share, so on Trading 212 I used fractional shares. Fractional shares are one of the best things to happen to small investors — you don't need thousands to own a piece of a company you believe in.
Why Meta? A few reasons. First, the advertising business is a cash machine. Over 3 billion people use Meta's apps every day — Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp. Advertisers pay to reach those eyeballs. Second, Meta has been pouring money into AI — not just the chatbot kind, but the kind that makes advertising more effective. Better targeting means higher ad prices. Third, the balance sheet is strong — Meta has a mountain of cash and relatively little debt. That's a lot of dry powder.
Is it cheap? That depends what you mean. The price-to-earnings ratio is in the mid-20s, which isn't bargain territory but isn't crazy for a company growing earnings at the rate Meta is. Could it drop significantly? Absolutely. Tech stocks do that all the time. That's why my position is small.
I should also say: Meta is not without controversy. Privacy concerns, content moderation headaches, regulatory scrutiny — the list is long. I'm not blind to the risks. But I've come to the view that the advertising business is so deeply embedded in the global economy that the risks are priced in. I could be wrong. Time will tell.
So that's it. One Magnificent Seven stock, one small position, one long-term hold. I'm not trying to build a tech-heavy portfolio — my ETFs already give me plenty of tech exposure — but having a small direct stake in a company I admire keeps things interesting.
As always: this is what I did with my own money. Not a recommendation. Do your own research. All investing carries risk. Meta is a single stock — it's far riskier than a diversified ETF, and its price can be extremely volatile.