Mark Zuckerberg may taunt Elon Musk with a cage match. But he just toppled Warren Buffett for financial bragging rights much more valuable to S&P 500 investors.
Thanks to a powerful 4.4% gain in Meta Platforms stock Thursday, the value of Zuckerberg's social media firm jumped past Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway. Meta is now worth $799 billion. That makes it the seventh most-valuable stock in the S&P 500.
That's notably ahead of Berkshire Hathaway at $773 billion, says an Investor's Business Daily analysis of data from S&P Global Market Intelligence and MarketSmith.
This surge in Meta Platforms' market value is critical — as it reasserts the company as one of the S&P 500's key drivers. It's also the latest sign of the company's metamorphosis from big spender on virtual reality to leader in social media. And investors are scoring big-time. The stock is up 160% this year, topping Berkshire Hathaway's 14% rise. That adds nearly $500 billion to Meta investors' portfolios.
"Meta has been a standout performer in 2023, which CEO Mark Zuckerberg proclaimed as the 'year of efficiency,' " said Scott Kessler, analyst at Third Bridge. "Investors have been encouraged by Meta's cost and expense management, which has supported margins and cash flows."
S&P 500 Flip-Flop From Meta To Berkshire
In many ways, Meta is crawling out of the VR doghouse. Its ill-timed investments on the unpopular technology helped knock its value down to just $316 billion at the end of last year. Meta ended 2022 not even in the top 10 most-valuable S&P 500 firms. It ranked just 19th.
But Meta is back now. And the resurgence returns it as one of the top dogs in the S&P 500. Berkshire Hathaway's value pulled ahead of Meta's in early 2022. And its maintained the dominant position throughout 2022 and early 2023. Meta now accounts for 1.7% of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust.
And it's not just Meta Platforms riding the momentum of the "Magnificent Seven" stocks. There's fundamental growth behind the surge. The company on July 26 reported second-quarter profit growth of 21%. That topped expectations by more than 3%. Keep in mind the company's quarterly profit fell short of views in the second, third and fourth quarters of 2022.
Battle Of S&P 500 Billionaires
There's also much at stake among billionaire founders of S&P 500 companies.
Zuckerberg, who still owns 13.6% of Meta, gained $66.7 billion just this year in market value. That of course tops Buffett's $14 billion gain on his 15.1% stake in Berkshire Hathaway.
But perhaps more important to Zuckerberg's ego is that he's narrowing the gap with Tesla. Tesla is valued at $812 billion. That puts it still barely just ahead of Meta as the sixth most-valuable S&P 500 stock. The gap, though, is narrowing. Zuckerberg's personal gain on Meta stock this year outstrips Musk's $54 billion gain on Tesla.
Looks like the real cage match is yet to come.
Meta Back On Top Of Berkshire
Most valuable S&P 500 companies
| Company | Symbol | Market value ($ billions) | YTD % ch. | Sector |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple | $3.1 | 48.8% | Information Technology | |
| Microsoft | 2.5 | 37.8 | Information Technology | |
| Alphabet | 1.6 | 46.8 | Communication Services | |
| Amazon.com | 1.3 | 52.6 | Consumer Discretionary | |
| Nvidia | 1.1 | 214.0 | Information Technology | |
| Tesla | 0.8 | 107.7 | Consumer Discretionary | |
| Meta Platforms | 0.798 | 159.0 | Communication Services | |
| Berkshire Hathaway | 0.77 | 13.9 | Financials | |
| Visa | 0.5 | 12.7 | Financials | |
| UnitedHealth Group | 0.5 | -4.6 | Health Care |
