Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) stock remains a Wall Street favorite despite the company’s controversial push to issue a new class of shares to help Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg retain control even as he donates shares to charity. Indeed, it seems the social network can do no wrong as its profits and ad revenue continue shooting through the roof.
Facebook stock outperforms the market
Data from S&P Global Market Intelligence indicates that Facebook Inc stock has climbed 9% this year—at a time when the broader market has been stronger. In fact, as Demitrios Kalogeropoulos notes in a post on The Motley Fool, the stock is outperforming the market by about eight percentage points. Shareholders with the foresight to pick up Facebook Inc stock at its initial public offering three years ago and the guts to hold onto it through a difficult first year of trading have enjoyed a 200% return. The social network is now the eighth-biggest company in the S&P 500 by market capitalization.
Facebook Inc said in January that ad sales spiked in the fourth quarter while its user base surpassed 1 billion. Also profitability skyrocketed, hitting 44% of sales in the fourth quarter from 29% previously. The outperformance continued in the first quarter when its revenue soared 52% and net income tripled, reaching 1.5 billion. The social network also continued to see its user base grow with a 15% increase in the first quarter despite its previous large size.
Facebook stock to double or triple in two years
So what’s in store for Facebook Inc stock this year? At some point, Wall Street’s favorite stocks just reach the point where they’re just so high that investors begin taking profits and those who initiate new positions run the risk of losing money. Euphoria surrounding growth stocks lasts as long as the strong growth continues; once growth slows down, investors become understandably less enthusiastic.
So what about Facebook Inc stock? It is highly dependent on the social network’s continued growth, so when will it slow down? In a post on Profit Confidential, Gaurav S. Iyer links Facebook’s strong growth to its new platform launches. He believes the mobile app has played a major role in the company’s growth and argues that messaging is the next big platform that will trigger massive growth, not only for the company itself but also for its stock.
Facebook Inc acquired WhatsApp a few years ago, snapping up a hugely popular messaging platform. It also launched is Messenger app and has been adding more features, such as chatbots, to it. Iyer believes these two messaging platforms are the social network’s next two huge profit centers and that they will help its stock double or possibly even triple over the next 14 months.