Facebook stock jumps in public debut

[josephga]

Facebook stock jumps in first day of trading after raking in $16 billion in IPO.

 

NEW YORK (AP) -- Facebook is updating its status to "public company" as its stock jumps in its debut on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

 

The stock opened at $42.05 on Friday morning. It later settled at $39. CEO Mark Zuckerberg smiled as rang the opening bell from Facebook's headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif. Surrounded by cheering Facebook employees and wearing his signature hoodie, the 28-year-old pushed the button that signals the opening of the stock market in New York.

 

On Thursday, Facebook and the investment bankers arranging the IPO settled on a price of $38 per share. The company and its early investors raised $16 billion in the offering, which valued Facebook at $104 billion. That makes Facebook the most valuable U.S. company to ever go public.

 

All I have to say is remember myspace? I can't believe people are investing in this

[maxwellissmart]

Facebook stock jumps in first day of trading after raking in $16 billion in IPO.

 

NEW YORK (AP) -- Facebook is updating its status to "public company" as its stock jumps in its debut on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

 

The stock opened at $42.05 on Friday morning. It later settled at $39. CEO Mark Zuckerberg smiled as rang the opening bell from Facebook's headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif. Surrounded by cheering Facebook employees and wearing his signature hoodie, the 28-year-old pushed the button that signals the opening of the stock market in New York.

 

On Thursday, Facebook and the investment bankers arranging the IPO settled on a price of $38 per share. The company and its early investors raised $16 billion in the offering, which valued Facebook at $104 billion. That makes Facebook the most valuable U.S. company to ever go public.

 

All I have to say is remember myspace? I can't believe people are investing in this

 

In all honesty I think Facebook has the potential to hang in there for the long run, since so many people are using it for business, and it's become the de facto method for day-to-day communication between most people I know. I think it's going to branch off into multiple sites in the near future, or have a professional, paid version a la IMDb and other sites.

[instudiocity]

Yeah, but today's price has a whole-lotta market frenzy in it. FB couldn't decide to issue the stock at $28, $34 or $38/share? That's all about, "I got something you want but I'm not going to let you have it cheap." Give it a couple of months, after initial frenzy wears off, what will it be worth? No one knows if it will be $30/share or $300/share.

[gallahadesquire]

$10

[Guest Connoisseur]

$10

 

I agree. An evil way to join the 1% is to have everyone else put money into Facebook stock selling at 88 times earnings. Remember when Myspace was a big deal? And the barriers to competing with Facebook by "newspace" or whatever is what? Yup, not much.

[+ Travis69]

According to the news Mark Zuckerberg got married today. Wonder if she signed a pre-nup.....

[josephga]

I get the impression he wouldn't ask for a pre-nup. I saw a interview with him on 60 minutes once and he came off as someone that lives a very modest life and didn't care as much about the money but more about the creativity.

[jawjateck]

Anybody wanna buy 300 shares of FB this morning? Can I get a bid? Anybody? Anybody? LOLL!!!!

[rguer]

I get the impression he wouldn't ask for a pre-nup. I saw a interview with him on 60 minutes once and he came off as someone that lives a very modest life and didn't care as much about the money but more about the creativity.

 

On the other hand, he hasn't given his billions to the poor, so "I don't care about the money" might be an act.

[Decatur Guy]

Currently trading for $33.80 ... down 11%. If it goes down to the low teens, I might buy 50 to 100 shares. Maybe.

[instudiocity]

Currently trading for $33.80 ... down 11%. If it goes down to the low teens, I might buy 50 to 100 shares. Maybe.

 

Last I saw it was down 13%. Wanna lose money FAST, get in the bidding frenzy for an over-priced share of Facebook on IPO Day and watch it drop. This is the epitome of why novice investors shouldn't get caught up in Frenzy Buying OR Selling.

 

"I over-paid Mark Zuckerburg for a share of his company's stock!" What a great cheer.

[jjkrkwood]

Last I saw it was down 13%. Wanna lose money FAST, get in the bidding frenzy for an over-priced share of Facebook on IPO Day and watch it drop. This is the epitome of why novice investors shouldn't get caught up in Frenzy Buying OR Selling.

 

"I over-paid Mark Zuckerburg for a share of his company's stock!" What a great cheer.

 

My broker advised me to wait until the price settles in.

 

But I guess all the people that jumped on board last week helped pay for Mr Zuckerbergs wedding this weekend ? Congrats Mark !

[instudiocity]

But I guess all the people that jumped on board last week helped pay for Mr Zuckerbergs wedding this weekend ?

That's the thing that irks me the most. The original sellers of the stock, those who acquired it before the IPO, either through stock grants or private placements, get paid ROYAL PREMIUMS for what is at best a $28 stock. Then the initial purchasers in the IPO who are paying a royal premium to be owners wind up screwed! And not in the fun way!

[jawjateck]

Will someone please offer me 30 for FB? Anyone? Anyone? ok ok ok how about 29.25? That's a deal huh? anyone? please?

 

I can't help but laugh as I watch this thing crash, even though I know alot of retail investors got sucked in and have been hammered by the hype.

[instudiocity]

ZUCKED! For reals?

 

http://www.cnbc.com/id/47520315

 

I'm just having to laugh. The most basic stock analysis values a company's stock against the company's earnings. It's called a price/earnings ratio.

 

Google today is trading at a P/E of 18. Apple is at 13.77.

 

Even with the drop to $32.XX/share, the P/E is 105.08.

 

Anyone want to explain the difference between 100 times earnings and 14 or 18 times earnings?

 

ZUCKING! And I blame the investment banks and the executives of Facebook for the excess.

 

LOL!

[instudiocity]

That's the thing that irks me the most. The original sellers of the stock, those who acquired it before the IPO, either through stock grants or private placements, get paid ROYAL PREMIUMS for what is at best a $28 stock. Then the initial purchasers in the IPO who are paying a royal premium to be owners wind up screwed! And not in the fun way!

Correction - it's a $5 stock with pretensions. That's 31 cents per share times P/E of 15.

[jawjateck]

The media bears responsibility for advocating (hyping) this stock ridiculously, with all the talk about what a great company it is, changing the face of America, innovation, all the new millionaires and billionaires, blah blah blah. Where was the media when right before the IPO, FB submits a filing with the SEC cautioning about decelerating revenue growth because of the rapid movement to mobile technology (where FB has no advertising biz) away from desktop technology (where FB makes it ad money). How about some reporting on that? Geez....I dunno....a company pricing an IPO at 80 or 100x earnings with decelerating revenue growth, why was there zero coverage on that? Thankfully, I am averse to dual-class ownership structures in publicly traded companies, or I could have been duped like so many have been.

[instudiocity]

The media bears responsibility for advocating (hyping) this stock ridiculously, with all the talk about what a great company it is, changing the face of America, innovation, all the new millionaires and billionaires, blah blah blah...

 

Jawja, I don't think you can really blame the media as much as you can the investment banks underwriting the Facebook IPO or the execs of Facebook. Remember, the media quotes the Dow Jones Industrial Average changes as if it's Holy Writ when it's just an index loosely based on 30 huge corporations. Media isn't required to perform due diligence nor are they privy to the insider information that the underwriters were.

 

The more I think about it the more I believe this IPO is going to wind up under some serious Federal scrutiny - both SEC/NASDAQ and Congressional. It's looking more and more like the 1% Zucking the 99%.

[jawjateck]

I agree with what you're saying, but I'm referring to more than the insider hanky panky that went on at Morgan Stanley; those boys should be worried about their shenanigans. I'm referring to FB's April 23 filing with the SEC in which they reported decelerating revenues, which may actually turn out to be declining revenues (gasp!) and higher expenses. It seems they will make significantly less money in 2012 than last year. So my question is, where was the coverage on that public filing? I can't remember hearing a peep about it. All I've heard is the greatness that is FB. I agree that it's not the media's job to guide the public's investment decisions, but where was the balance in the coverage? Why is it that the only cautions I've heard about FB stock have been since the IPO, but none before? It should never have been ignored that a company with decelerating or declining revenues, higher expenses, lower earnings, was being priced at such an outrageous valuation based on hypothetical future earnings 5 years from now.

 

If anyone actually read that filing, they should be scared out of their mind, to invest in FB stock. There are so many warnings about the uncertainties of their business model, and their cluelessness about how to monetize the platform....scary stuff! I think your 5-10 price target is appropriate for this mess of a stock.

[fedssocr1]

I agree that the media bears some responsibility for the hype. GMA, CNBC, et al. were all shilling for this thing and raising the hype for a whole week. You'd like to think they would learn a lesson but they won't.

[RM]

Correction - it closed at 31 today.

[+ azdr0710]

the lawsuits are already beginning....

 

http://marketday.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/23/11828591-zuckerberg-morgan-stanley-sued-over-facebook-ipo?lite

[orbital sander]

the lawsuits are already beginning....

 

http://marketday.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/23/11828591-zuckerberg-morgan-stanley-sued-over-facebook-ipo?lite

 

surprise, surprise...