Facebook Inc. (FB) stock finally hit a ceiling Thursday morning after investors pushed it to a new high Wednesday night in extended trading. The social media company stood up to the difficult comparisons it was up against and still topped Wall Street’s estimates. Needless to say, analysts from virtually every Wall Street firm boosted their price target on Facebook stock, although not everyone is happy with all of it.
The company reported $8.8 billion in revenue and non-GAAP earnings of $1.41 per share, compared to the consensus estimates of $8.5 billion and $1.31 per share.
Facebook stock downgraded by Pivotal
If you can believe it, one analyst made a huge contrarian call after last week’s earnings report by downgrading Facebook stock. Brian Wieser of Pivotal Research cut his rating to Hold because he expects the higher expenses this year to weigh on the company’s valuation. The social media company guided for expense growth that was bigger than expected, so he slashed his price target from $147 to $135.
However, Credit Suisse analyst Stephen Ju defended the high expenses for this year in his note, saying that it’s only nature for them to grow because the company’s revenue will grow too. He boosted his price target for Facebook from $165 to $170 per share and said he expects investors to focus on the higher-than-expected expense guidance.
Higher expenditures to come with higher revenue
The company expects GAAP operating expenditures to grow by 40% to 50% and non-GAAP expenditures to rise by 47% to 57% for this year Ju believes the delta is because of planned investments in video and research and development for Oculus. He points out that both of these areas will come with revenue generation, so he feels there is still upward bias to estimates. He remains a buyer of Facebook stock as he still expects long-term revenue growth without any “material” increase in ad load. The main drivers for now, he says, are Instagram, Premium Video and Dynamic Product Ads.
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