Facebook & Netflix Are Value Stocks Now

Facebook & Netflix Are Value Stocks Now

The FTSE Russell indexes will reshuffle its benchmarks, with Meta, Netflix and PayPal moving into the Russell 1000 Value Index as their weights lighten up in the Russell 1000 Growth index, and GameStop will also jump to the value index while losing its spot in the growth index, reports an article in The Wall Street Journal. Pinterest, Zoom, Moderna and software company Okta are also jumping into the value index while remaining in the growth index. So far this year, the Russell 1000 Growth Index is down 28%, close to its worst performance in 20 years.

As a result of the rebalancing, Tesla will claim Meta’s spot as the fifth-largest U.S. company in the Russell benchmarks, while a handful of energy stocks, bolstered by the current market, will shift from the Russell 2000 index of small companies to the Russell 1000 index. Several different metrics determine which stocks go into what index, such as growth predictions and sales history, FTSE Russell shares with The Journal. The current reshuffling is yet another indication of how far tech companies have fallen out of favor after a decade of investors paying top dollar for their shares. But with Meta, Netflix and PayPal declining 53%, 70% and 61% respectively, those shares now look more like value stocks.

The index reshuffle will affect trillions of dollars in investments, as managers scramble to buy or sell stocks to ensure that any passive funds are tracked in the correct index. Strategist Min Moon of JPMorgan Chase posits that tech companies will lose the most weight in the growth index, with Meta being the leader in loss as its position drops from 2.3% to 0.5%. On the flip side, energy companies will bulk up from 0.6% to 1.5% in the same index, the article details.

But some managers believe the price-to-book ratio metric that FTSE Russell uses is no longer relevant because it doesn’t factor in intangible assets, and point to Meta as an example of the discrepancy. Aaron Dunn of Eaton Vance told The Journal, “I don’t know that it’s cheap enough for us to say that’s a value stock and that it’s undervalued on an intrinsic basis.”