Facebook can be a terrific way to connect with friends and family, a colossal drain on your time and productivity, or a little of both. Soon, another facet will emerge: investment opportunity.
Mutual
fund managers are scrutinizing Facebook's strengths and weaknesses
before public trading of its shares, which is expected to begin May 18.
Because
of its size, the initial public offering will be hard to ignore for
managers specializing in technology stocks, and those focusing on the
large-cap, growth-stock market segment that Facebook will join. It's
expected to be the biggest IPO for an Internet company, surpassing
Google's 2004 market debut.
Facebook might seem to be an obvious potential buy for those
managers, given its amazing rise from dorm-room startup in 2004 to the
world's largest online social network.
But successful
stock-picking means being price-conscious. Until late last week, fund
managers had little to go on in assessing Facebook's potential
investment value.
That's when Facebook disclosed in a regulatory
filing that its shares would be priced in a range of $28 to $35 apiece.
The specific price is to be released the day before trading, and
decision time is approaching for fund managers considering Facebook for
their portfolios.
A select few have already jumped in. Dozens have
acquired private shares of Facebook over the past year-and-a-half, in
some cases through secondary markets that are off-limits to average
investors.
More than 30 Fidelity Investments funds recently owned
private Facebook shares, including Fidelity's largest stock fund,
Contrafund (FCNTX). But Facebook made up just 0.1 percent of that $84
billion fund's portfolio at the end of March, and other Fidelity funds
holding Facebook had similarly small investments, spokeswoman Sophie
Launay said.
Another big fund company, T. Rowe Price, recently
reported that 19 of its funds owned private Facebook shares, in nearly
all instances making up less than 1 percent of each fund's portfolio.
Morgan
Stanley has also been active. Its $1.7 billion Focus Growth Fund
(AMOAX) recently held 3.6 percent of its portfolio in Facebook shares.
Several
other funds from smaller companies have purchased shares on secondary
markets. Below are comments from interviews this week with managers of
two such funds: Chris Brown of Pax World Balanced (PAXWX) and Thomas
Vandeventer of Tocqueville Opportunity (TOPPX). They discuss the
potential rewards and risks – worth considering for investors in funds
that count Facebook among their holdings, or for individuals considering
investing directly in the stock.
REWARDS:
Facebook's
potential is undeniable because the site has more than 900 million
users. There are huge profit opportunities for Facebook and its
investors from advertising revenue.
Brown believes there's still
plenty of untapped potential. He sees a big opportunity if Facebook can
generate earnings from highly-targeted ads tailored to appeal to
specific Facebook users based on their interests.
"Right now, the
ads are more about building brand awareness," Brown says. "But if
advertisers could specifically target a certain demographic, by age
group or gender, for example, that's where the profit margins would be
very beneficial."
Vandeventer is cautious about the short-term outlook, but optimistic in the long-run.
"It's
still a pretty young company, and we don't really know how they will
monetize," or find a way to significantly increase the income it
generates from its online services, he says.
But he adds that
Facebook "has basically penetrated half of all current Internet users on
Earth. So it's a huge opportunity for a profitable business model."
"It
is not that different than if you had invested in Google back in 2004,
or even LinkedIn a year ago," he says. In both cases, the companies went
public as their income-generating potential was still unclear. Yet each
has proved itself. Google's shares debuted around at $100 apiece, and
today trade at around $615. LinkedIn shares opened at $45 last May, and
now trade at around $112.
RISKS:
Despite its vast user base,
Facebook isn't yet generating a huge amount of revenue by Wall Street
standards. While first-quarter revenue grew 45 percent from a year
earlier to $1.06 billion, it declined 6 percent from the fourth quarter.
"They may have to spend more money to grow this business, and that could put pressure on profit margins," Brown says.
Other
key challenges include attracting more users who access Facebook from
mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, and generating mobile ad
revenue. Most Facebook users are on personal computers, and Brown
believes Facebook is lagging somewhat in the faster-growing mobile
space.
Mobile applications "could certainly be a good growth driver, but it could also be a challenge for them," Brown says.
Another
key issue is whether Facebook can someday expand into China, the
world's most populous country. It's shut out now. China's government
blocked Facebook as well as Twitter after the social media services were
instrumental in anti-government protests in Iran two years ago.
However, Vandeventer still sees plenty of opportunity to grow globally.
"In
the United States, they are only 60 percent penetrated currently," he
says. "Then there's India, Brazil and so on. There is still plenty of
potential growth, absent China."
"There is a mission statement at
Facebook, which is to connect all the people of the world. And that
means all the world, so long-term there is an objective of getting into
China."
THE BIG PICTURE
Facebook has established its user
base, and increasingly its prospects as a profitable company depend on
execution. Vandeventer believes Facebook's executives are capable of
building a hugely profitable business, although founder Mark Zuckerberg
may not strike many observers as a typical CEO. Zuckerberg showed up at
meetings with prospective investors this week wearing a hoodie, a staple
of his wardrobe.
Vandeventer was among those at a New York City meeting, and he's comfortable with the youthful vibe the executive team exudes.
"Who
cares what Mark Zuckerberg wears to his meetings? I don't. What I care
about is that he executes. The team that I saw has a pretty firm grasp
of what's going on."
0 التعليقات :
Post a Comment