Ted Weisberg on META Value Opportunity in AI, Going Long on Energy & Airlines

back to Opening Bell. Time for the very latest here on the floor of New York Stock Exchange. Joining me right now Ted We, founder of Presidentrt Securities. We have a bit of a bounce back today after some big selling late in the day on Frida I'm not sure people even expected it, but there was some talk about anthropic maybe not getting the investment grade rating, that it might cost themo borrow money. And some of the AI borro came back to the forefront. What did you think of the sell off? D view that kind of day as an rtunity? s interesting because your complete focus is tech, but the fact is it's value versus tech and value actually had ay good week last wee mean, we saw it in a lot of our portfolios. N A lot of theortfolios are trading at or actually made new highs at the end of the week last week. And at the end of the month,tuar th folks. So I think, you know, it's, it's, it comes back the rabbits. You know, if you had the right rabbits, it wasn't so bad. If you if your focus was completely tech, it was a pretty difficult week.d Ir child for difficulty had to have been Intel on, on Friday because that was that was that was pretty difficult. That was down 29% Intel. Do you tell what do you tell folks who say, Iant to have all tech. What do you advise Well, you know, I have always lived in the value world. You know, with some exceptions, we always talk about is one and there are a few others.ut basically I'm most comfortable in the value in the value in the v lane, if you will, because at the end of the day, you know, I want to own good balance sheets. I want to get paid while I wait. And I want to buy good management. It does. A ton of money has been made in tech, but nothing in my opinion, nothing lasts forever.d it's still where you want to have some exp But all in, I think all in ae is probably a mistake. You know, you want some diversification no matter no matter howou're investing. We were talking about some of the selling that happened after we heard from le,I mean, they had a miss, right. But meta beat, but still said they're doing a big capital raise. You've held m long time since day one. Pretty much your thoughts on meta at this point. Now let me tell you where it's trading right this second. I'm sure you follow it tick by tick. It's at 612 off the 7.79 hig What do you think about I still like it.ll a comparatively it actually it acts pretty good. B the problem fora as it is for a lot of these big tech nams the money they're spending. You know, they've taken what were pristine balan sheets and essentially they've blown them all up, you know, to be able to fund their exposure t AI. I have no idea how that's going to play out. But I'm reminded, the whole world was completely focused on tech stocks in that period. And I, I remember we didn't have a lot of exposure and we missed sort of the whole play going into 1999, but we ended up looking stocks that wouldn't have exposure to tech, we ended up with the rails. We ended up with stocks like Waste Management, you know that. And are we at the same place today? I really don't know because certainly the growth is with the tech names. An still hold meta and we like meta. And actually, relatively speaking, meta is actuallyg pretty well. All right. So you still like that onehat about Apple. Do you hold Apple. Would you buy Apple after the report tod Any thoughts on Apple. Apple. Apple has been the poster for a lot of folks for a lot of wealth bg for the last 5 to 7 years. And personally, I own Apple, but we have a lot of clients that do do own and it's been very good to them. But Apple is a little different animal. It's, it's it's a terrific company, great products. You wonder how many more phones and stuff they can sell to people, but somehow theep managing to do it. So I don't have a strong opinion t e othe I kind of wish I owned it, I never did, but it's it's made a lot of seaport clients quite wealthy. Well, sure. I mean, it's not tha off from all time highs itself, right? I mean, one year, let's say it's up 25%. And we and we get the earnings today. Apple earnings come today after the today. Yes. And a few others on Roku. Fang W and B Williams companies. What about when we think about thede. You were thinking about the airlines and the energy trade. What hap there. I mean you ha like the pair trade. What were you doing with that. Well I mean I haven't seen the tap of it now. No oil right now is at 97. Oil down six and a half dollars. Oil is getting slammed And the rest of that is going to be the airlines. I don't know where United is or Delta at the moment. Right. But but I would have to bet without looking that they're probably United's up 5.5%. So it's still a great trade. And Americans have 4.7. Sothis point now are you shorting oil buying airlines or the other way around. Well now actually we're long both. We're long the airlines long both and and and and and we're long and we're long energy. And, and e long. Soe of the refiners. But for us, it's sort of, it's sort of a hedge, you know, I mean, hopefully in the end it'll be it'll a win win. But right now, I mean, who knows what's going to happen in the Middle East and who knows what's going to happen with oil. But if I if I were a betting man today, I'd probably rather be long the airlines than the energy stocks. And then I think about what's going on with the selling in tech. And there are some people who think it still has more to sell. Others, you know, some are taking some profits, others are buying the dips, etc. I want to go through some of your picks here. Now you Essilor. Luxottica makes the Ray-Ban glasses that was tied to meta. Tell me is that and it's and it's come down. It's been on a bit of an upswing lately, but it is down 40% over one year. Iss a buying oppty. Yeah. Well that's right. We spoke about it. I think wepoke to 2 or 3 weeks ago and the stock was trading in the low 80s. I said we'd goneetely round trip. And it's up 28% in onemonu know, he'd gone. So we gave away, we gave away a lot of profits in the name. But I think I said and I would say again, it's a stock I want to own. I thought the stock in the 80s was very cheap. I still think it's a cheap stock right. It's a very unique company with almost market share in that eyewear field, including thea, you know, the the meta glasses. So yes, it's acting a little better. Thank you very much. Yeah. I just hope it continues. Sunbelt is one Sun rentals and Pfizer and Ice give me 10s on each one. Well, ice of course, we own a these names, but Icewns the New York Stock Exchange. They just reportedy good earnings. The sto had a big move last week. It's been a difficult sto But overall I think the exchange stocks are stocks you want toe exposure to. And I want to have exposure to Ice in particular. But once aga like some from a long tim ago over one year. It's up about 14% now. Sunbelt and Pfizer. Well Sunbelt is equipment rental. And sot's kind of astrucI like that business. And United Rentals hn a real home ru And I don't know if Sunbelt will duplicate what United Rentals has done, but I think it's a company that we want to own. Andfizer, you know, has been dead money forever. The pharmaceuticals, the big pharmaceutical companies have been acting great of late, once again, value versus tech. And I think Pfizer is way behind the group pays a dividend. So you're ge paid while you wait. Solid company, good balance sheet. I think it's a good stock to own. You're not shoring up cash are you. Just quickly look cash is always king. It's always good to have some. But you're not putting more. You're not doing a lot. So we know we always we always try to keep a little mattress money on the side just in case. Ted Weisberg, Seaport