Technology

Facebook Now More Valuable Than Bank of America, Oracle, AT&T

Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) investors have enjoyed a huge start to 2014, up more than 28%, seventh among stocks in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.

Its market capitalization topped $180 billion on Monday, when the shares closed at $70.78, and was just under than level in early Tuesday trading after the shares slipped. Not bad for a company whose revenue for all of 2013 was just $7.9 billion.

The market cap is now about 30th in the world and is ahead of such well-known companies as AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) and Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO), not to mention Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) and Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL).

Facebook’s share-price gain comes on top of a 2013 gain of 105.3%. It also means Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s holdings in the company are worth some $33 billion.

The question now is if the stock is overbought and whether anyone cares. The short answer is that the stock “looks” to be overbought. One caveat — stocks, or markets, can remain overbought or overvalued for years.

Facebook’s stock is trading about 59% above its 200-day moving average. It sports a relative-strength index level of nearly 70. A reading above 70 usually suggests a security is overbought. Its 85% price rise since its May 2012 initial public offering misses part of the story. The IPO was a disaster, driving the shares down to as low as $17.55. Those same shares have quadrupled since.

That said, investors do not seem to care that Facebook shares look overbought. The shares are up about 4% since the company announced on Wednesday that it will acquire messaging service WhatsApp for $16 billion in stock.

Revenue in 2013 was up 205%. Earnings were up 188%, measured on a non-GAAP basis, 200% using generally accepted accounting.

CNBC’s Jim Cramer posited Monday that he thinks the stock market is getting pricey. But he listed Facebook as one of his 15 top momentum stocks. So all is good for Facebook. Until it isn’t.

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