Technology

As Twitter Reality Sets In, Social Media Gets Crushed

The valuation concern is back in social media, and perhaps fears of a market correction make the reality check even that much more important. Twitter, Inc. (NYSE: TWTR) saw on Monday that the microblogging site is not immune to more reality checks. One such reality check came from Marc Faber, who is a market pundit that produces the Gloom Boom and Doom Report. In the weekend edition of Barron’s Roundtable, Marc Faber bashed Twitter and other momentum stocks.

Faber is well known for taking bearish stances, but it seems that the 75-times or 100-times revenues is too much for him too. 24/7 Wall St. saw this in a myriad of Twitter downgrades that came out since the first of the year, before Goldman Sachs and other firms effectively upgraded the stock.

In fact, Twitter shares have fallen from a peak of almost $75 down to just under $58 no. The stock price is still handily above its post-IPO debut. Faber told the Barron’s Roundtable article that he would be shorting momentum stocks such as Tesla, Netflix, Facebook, Twitter, 3D Systems, and Veeva. He went so far as to say that they are good companies – good companies which are overpriced.

Twitter shares were down 6.2% at $57.91 at the close, down from a post IPO range of $38.80 to $74.73. The carnage is out elsewhere in social media too.

Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) has seen real selling ahead of its earnings report, which we explained in our earnings preview for Wednesday. The social media giant closed down 1.6% at $53.55 on Monday, down from a new high above $59 just a week ago. Facebook/s 52-week range is 422.67 to $59.31. Earnings will be out this week, and the forward 2014 valuations with a $131 billion market cap are 50-times expected 2014 earnings and almost 13-times expected 2014 sales.

LinkedIn Corp. (NYSE: LNKD) is where the real valuation concerns may arise. The social media network for professionals saw its stock fall 5.6% to $205.22 on Monday. That is now down almost 20% from the peak of $257.56. LinkedIn’s expected valuations ahead are 92-times expected 2014 earnings and just over 11-times expected 2014 revenues.

Twitter makes the other social media giants like Facebook and LinkedIn look cheap. Its expected valuations ahead is about 28-times expected 2014 revenue, but Twitter is still expected to lose money in 2014. Shorting a stock on value alone is often next to impossible. That being said, sometimes values are just too high by any measurement.

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