Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Facebook runs at $50 as analysts turn into fans

Facebook stock is setting record highs as Wall Street analysts keep rushing to slap "buy" ratings on the stock and boost price targets.

Shares of Facebook jumped $1.01 to close at $49.46 Wednesday as another Wall Street analyst put out bullish notes on the largest social-networking company.

Canaccord Genuity started covering Facebook stock with a buy rating with a price target of $60 a share, pointing to the company's advertising strength.

But Canaccord is just the latest in what's been a powerful pileup of bullish analyst notes. On Tuesday, shares of Facebook jumped after Citigroup upgraded the stock to a buy, saying that the company's momentum is sustainable.

Now, the chorus of Wall Street analysts is largely bullish, with an average "outperform" rating on Facebook shares, says S&P Capital IQ. The median price target from the 39 analysts covering the stock is $47 a share, with the upper part of the range at $60 a share.

The rush of support from Wall Street analysts is a remarkable shift from the days after the initial public offering in May 2012. Shares wound up losing about half their value from the $38-a-share offering price, as Wall Street analysts and investors turned sour on the company's prospects with mobile ads.

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But following Facebook's strong growth in the second quarter, powered largely by mobile ads, investors have been rushing into the shares, pushing them up more than 85% this year.

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