Facebook Buy, Sell, Hold

21 May 2012 4092 5 Comments http%3A%2F%2F20smoney.com%2F2012%2F05%2F21%2Ffacebook-buy-sell-hold%2F Facebook+-+Buy%2C+Sell%2C+Hold 2012-05-21+21%3A44%3A36 David http%3A%2F%2F20smoney.com%2F%3Fp%3D4092

What do you think about Facebook stock?

Are you an optimist on FB telling your friends its a BUY, or are you netural?  Do you think its time for anyone who got in to sell now and take the loss?

The IPO Friday started with an opening of $38 and jumped to over $42 for the high.  The second day of trading the stock plummeted to a close of $34.03.  Currently at The Street.com there are two Strong Buy recommendations. (Not sure who put those in there, because it doesnt have a link to the analysts.)  Most financial sites Ive researched dont have analyst recommendations yet.

However, this Washington Post article  states that its possible the stock will double or even triple over the next five years.  Ill agree with this.  Although the initial reaction to the stock has come with doubts based on the drop in the stock price, it has huge potential.  Yes, there is still a big upside coming for this stock in my opinion.

About a month ago one of my investment banker friends sent me an email asking if I wanted in on the pre-IPO purchase of the stock.  The offer was to buy around $38 but you were locked in with the investment company to hold for six months.  My first reaction was not to buy just because I didnt think the stock would do much and second because I had to sit on my money for that long with someone else controlling it.  After telling my friend, Im out, I had second thoughts.  My doubts about Facebook doing much was based on personal opinion.  Im online all day, typically 10-12 hours.  So I visit a lot of sites and see myself as someone with a handle on the pulse of online activity.  At the same time I have a bias toward certain sites.  I found my personal opinion was getting in the way of looking at the investment as just that an investment.

So I sat back and started to write down the pluses and minuses of the company.  The biggest plus that switched my opinion from neutral to buy was the conversation I had a few online marketers a couple months ago.  These guys spend a lot of money advertising online and have made a lot of money over the years with their websites.  They had recently tested Facebook ads to drive traffic and found that it was so successful, they cut their Adwords accounts with Google and moved the money to Facebook.  If advertisers are this successful with the ads just in the infancy of the program, it can only get better, which means its going to get bigger as well.

Thats when I called my broker and placed the buy order for Friday.  I got in but at a price of $40.  As of the second day of trading Im down 15%, but am I worried.  Not a bit.  I know this stock has a long way to go and the company has huge potential.  I remember several years ago, doing the same analysis with Google when it went public.  Even though I came to the same conclusion BUY, I never did.  This time Im in.

So what do you think?  Do you buy, what price?  Are you selling, holding or keeping out?  Where do you see the stock in 90 days and 1 year? Let us know the comments.

4092 5 Comments http%3A%2F%2F20smoney.com%2F2012%2F05%2F21%2Ffacebook-buy-sell-hold%2F Facebook+-+Buy%2C+Sell%2C+Hold 2012-05-21+21%3A44%3A36 David http%3A%2F%2F20smoney.com%2F%3Fp%3D4092