Facebook’s post-earnings bloodbath amounted to the biggest one-day loss of market value by a single company in U.S. stock market history. But some on Wall Street say shares of the social media network will easily recover.
The stock tanked nearly 19 percent on Thursday, going negative for the year and extending its massive after-hours move after a quarterly earnings report that missed analysts’ estimates on revenue and daily active users.
“The knee-jerk reaction is to say that you’re going to see money exit some of these mega-cap names and go into some other areas of technology, which I frankly just don’t see that to be the case,” David Seaburg, head of sales and trading at Cowen, said Thursday on CNBC’s “Trading Nation.”
“Traditionally, you’d made the argument that hardware would be a place you’d see money go. That would be Apple, and we’d see software as well as a recipient of some of the dollars that may come out of Facebook today. You could point to a slew of names within that area that would be beneficiaries — but ultimately, I think Facebook is fine here,” Seaburg said.
To be sure, analysts’ reaction to Facebook’s earnings report was broadly negative. Analysts at UBS, Nomura Instinet and Raymond James downgraded the stock, while others were more optimistic and maintained overweight or buy ratings.
Bank of America said in a note it expected “some support for the stock on the view that there is upside potential vs. a low bar, and that revenues could reaccelerate after a usage shift (stories, video) adjustment period.” Jefferies said that despite Facebook’s guided deceleration, it views weakness as a buying opportunity. It’s a “foundation built through scaled quality connections and best in class tools will drive continued advertiser [return on investment],” the firm said in a note.
Other market watchers advise that instead of putting money to work in a social media play like Facebook, Snap or Twitter, Google parent Alphabet is the smarter technology bet now.
“They just delivered awesome second-quarter earnings because of mobile growth and strong advertising revenues,” Mark Tepper, president and CEO of Strategic Wealth Partners, said Thursday on CNBC’s “Trading Nation.”
Alphabet’s advertising strategy and Google’s cloud features are major reason to own the stock over a name like Facebook, Tepper added.
Facebook shares closed down nearly 19 percent on Thursday, closing at 176.26 per share and shedding $119.4 billion in market value. In Friday’s premarket, they were up nearly 1 percent. Twitter shares nosedived 14 percent before Friday’s opening bell after the social media company reported disappointing data on monthly active users.
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