MAANG Q3 2023: How Big-Tech Stocks Performed during the quarter ending June 2023?
Tech giants collectively known as MAANG are: Meta (Facebook), Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google. These five continue to shape the tech industry as they are the most successful and influential technology companies in the world.
These companies significantly influence market trends with their business decisions, product launches, and strategic moves and are known to significantly influence the stock market indices. These stocks together are the bellwether companies of the Nasdaq 100. Despite the fact that the Nasdaq 100 comprises hundred listed companies, almost 51.17% of the total market capitalisation is concentrated in the top eight corporations – Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Tesla, Google, Nvidia, Meta and Alphabet.
The top two companies by market capitalisation in Nasdaq are Microsoft and Apple as on August 7, 2023 which account for nearly 25% of the Nasdaq 100’s value.
The S&P 500 soared 15.9% in the first half of 2023. Seven stocks (including Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla) are known as the "Magnificent Seven" by Wall Street, accounting for 73% of those gains. In other words, they are almost single-handedly driving the S&P 500 toward bull market territory.
However, these stocks have had a rather disappointing earnings performance in 2023. A combination of rising interest rates in the US, market saturation, increasing competition and a reset in tech stock valuations has changed the narrative for MAANG in 2023.
Here’s how the top US tech companies’ shares performed in 2023:
| MAANG Stocks | YTD return (%) | 5-year return (%) |
| Meta (Facebook) | 149.10% | 72.38% |
| Amazon | 62.63% | 49.79% |
| Apple | 10.38% | 250.79% |
| Netflix | 46.33% | 24.79% |
| Google (Alphabet) | 43.75% | 104.55% |
MAANG: Comparative Analysis for the latest quarter ending June 2023
| MAANG Stocks | Revenue | Net Profit | Expenses | Users |
| Meta | $32 billion Up 11% YoY | $6.7 billion Up 16% YoY | $22.61 billion Up 10% YoY | 3.07 billion (Family DAU) Up 7% |
| Amazon | $134.4 billion Up 11% YoY | $6.75 billion Up 432.84% YoY | $126.7 billion Up 7.45% YoY | 200 million prime members worldwide |
| Apple | $81.8 billion Down 1% YoY | $19.9 billion Up 2.3% YoY | $13.4 billion Up 4.8% YoY | Approximately 1.46 billion active iPhone users worldwide |
| Netflix | $8.2 billion Up 2.7% YoY | $1.5 billion Up 3.2% YoY | $12.8 billion
| 238.39 million (Global streaming paid memberships) Up 8% YoY |
| $74.6 billion Up 7.1% YoY | $18.4 billion Up by 15% YoY | $52.8 billion | Approximately 4.3 billion users worldwide |
MAANG: Key Highlights
Meta (Facebook)
- Revenue grew 11% to $32 billion in the quarter ended June 30, compared with analysts' average estimate of $31.12 billion.
- Ad revenue rose 12%, at a much faster pace than its technology peer Google which reported a 3% rise in ad revenues.
- Meta cut its capital expenditure forecast for 2023, as it pushes capex plans regarding AI to 2024.
- The Reality Labs unit, which is responsible for developing metaverse-oriented technology like augmented reality glasses, reported sales of $276 million, down from $452 million
- Daily Active Users rose 5% YoY to 2.1 Billion.
Amazon
- Amazon's revenue grew 11% YoY to $134.4 billion, driven by the firm’s cloud computing division - Amazon Web Services (AWS).
- AWS sales rose 12% YoY to $22.1 billion during the quarter.
- AWS unveiled new AWS technologies, including Amazon Bedrock, AWS HealthScribe, Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud, AWS AppFabric, and more, with generative AI to help customers of all sizes.
Apple
- Apple’s Net sales/revenue fell 1% YoY to $81.8 billion. This was majorly due to Apple product sales which saw a 4% drop.
- A 2.45% drop in iPhone sales, which account for nearly half of total revenues.
- All-time revenue record in Services during the June quarter, driven by over 1 billion paid subscriptions.
- R&D expenses have increased by nearly 10% YoY, depicting focus on generative AI and Apple’s new AI features.
Netflix
- Netflix reported second-quarter revenue of $8.2 billion up 2.8%, its slowest revenue growth since December 2022 as the streaming sector continues to suffer from intense competition.
- Netflix added 5.9 million subscribers during the April to June 2023 quarter, taking its total subscribers to 238.4 million.
- Netflix to begin clampdown on password sharing during the quarter to boost earnings.
- The US and Canada contributed to the majority of incomes, followed by Europe and Middle East, Latin America and Asia Pacific.
Google (Alphabet)
- Alphabet’s revenue rose 7.1% to $74.60 billion from a year ago; strong jump in ad sales and steady demand for its cloud services pushed revenues higher.
- Ad sales for Google's YouTube video service unit rose 4.4% to $7.67 billion.
- Alphabet’s net profit for the period tallied to $18.36 billion, up from the $16 billion profit reported in the corresponding quarter last year.
- Google launched a host of AI services with its AI chatbot Bard. The company also revamped its search engine to include its generative AI chatbot.
MAANG: Analyst Rating
Meta:
- Baird has a 'outperform' rating on the firm and a share price target of $355
- Jefferies has a ‘buy’ rating on the firm and a share price target of $400
Amazon:
- Morgan Stanley maintains Amazon.com at 'overweight' with a price target of $175
- ‘Buy’ rating from Jefferies. The target price is reviewed upwards from $150 to $175
Apple:
- Baird maintains ‘outperform’ rating with price target $204 from $180
- Bernstein maintained a Hold rating with a price target of $195
Netflix:
- Goldman Sachs upgrades Netflix to ‘neutral; rating with $400 price target, up from $225
- Jefferies maintained Netflix at 'buy' with a price target of $440
Google:
- Morgan Stanley maintains ‘overweight’ rating with a stock price target of $155
- Goldman sachs reaffirms strong ‘buy’ rating with price target of $129.50