Facebook Shares Try to Fend Off Negative Reseach Reports

Photo of Jon C. Ogg
By Jon C. Ogg Updated Published

Invalid Image
Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) is trying to trade up this Tuesday. There are two research notes which may get in the way, and it is important to know that Friday’s close of $18.06 is only a tad above the $18.03 post-IPO low. We are focusing on research calls from J.P. Morgan and from an Internet media research shop named eMarketer.

J.P. Morgan has maintained an Overweight rating on Facebook, but the firm lowered its price target on the stock to $30 from $45. This call sees ad revenue reaccelerating in the second half of the year. The firm also noted that nonadvertising revenue, such as payments, will be challenging for the next few quarters.

On Friday, a day when almost no one was in the office, we saw that eMarketer lowered the sales expectations for Facebook to $5 billion from $6 billion, as advertisers are not spending what they expected to spend for advertising on Facebook. The firm did note that this was still 36% growth. eMarketer is expecting some 31% revenue growth in 2013, and it sees revenue growth above 20% in 2014. The lower estimates are based on the notion that advertisers want to be able to see the real value in the Facebook ads. eMarketer’s Ezra Palmer said that he is actually not that concerned about mobile in the near-term.

So far this morning we are seeing a 0.9% rise to $18.22 in premarket trading, and the post-IPO range is $18.03 to $45.00.

JON C. OGG

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.

Photo of Jon C. Ogg
About the Author Jon C. Ogg →

Jon Ogg has been a financial news analyst since 1997. Mr. Ogg set up one of the first audio squawk box services for traders called TTN, which he sold in 2003. He has previously worked as a licensed broker to some of the top U.S. and E.U. financial institutions, managed capital, and has raised private capital at the seed and venture stage. He has lived in Copenhagen, Denmark, as well as New York and Chicago, and he now lives in Houston, Texas. Jon received a Bachelor of Business Administration in finance at University of Houston in 1992. www.247wallst.com.

Featured Reads

Our top personal finance-related articles today. Your wallet will thank you later.

Continue Reading

Top Gaining Stocks

META Vol: 10,473,808
WY Vol: 752,967
COIN Vol: 1,471,702
FDS Vol: 28,158
PKG Vol: 58,969

Top Losing Stocks

CTRA Vol: 73,319,495
MRNA Vol: 1,577,694
INTC Vol: 13,045,412
NFLX Vol: 7,513,937
TER Vol: 207,697