Buy, Sell, or Hold: Facebook

By Evan Niu, CFA – Aug 13, 2013 at 8:30PM

NASDAQ: META

Meta Platforms

Market Cap

$1,121B

Today's Change

(-10.56%) -$52.12

Current Price

$441.38

Price as of April 25, 2024, 4:00 p.m. ET

Facebook recently reclaimed its IPO price of $38, which was a sore spot for many early public investors. As the social network has transformed into a mobile ad play, is it a buy?

Even as Facebook (META -10.56%) has begun to rally after its most recent quarterly earnings, the social network is demonstrating that it can execute in growing its core ad business as it transitions to mobile platforms. Google (GOOGL -1.97%) still can't compete meaningfully as a social network with Google Plus, and Facebook is even taking some cues from Big G's experimental ways by testing new initiatives.

While investors initially had pinned their hopes on Facebook's platform business, the storyline has shifted to its mobile ad platform and user engagement remains high. Now, any growth in the payments business is just gravy on top.

In the following video, Fool contributor Evan Niu, CFA, and Eric Bleeker, CFA, discuss why they're optimistic about Facebook's future, despite recent gains.

Eric Bleeker, CFA, has no position in any stocks mentioned. Fool contributor Evan Niu, CFA, has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Facebook and Google. The Motley Fool owns shares of Facebook and Google. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.