They’ve been bullish on the stock since 2013. However, their price target has been achieved and they feel the risk reward no longer favors investors at these levels. As such, they’ve downgraded the stock and have quietly removed a price target.
BTIG Research downgrades FB to Neutral from Buy noting “While we were SELL rated on Facebook after its IPO due to concerns over it ability to pivot to mobile, we reversed to a BUY rating in October 2013, with the stock at $49.40. With Facebook stock now over $120, exceeding the $117 price target we set one year ago this week, we believe the risk/reward is no longer compelling. Facebook remains one of the only ways to play the shift of legacy media ad dollars to mobile and its advertising growth rate remains staggeringly high, especially for a $348 billion market cap company. However, investor expectations over the past year have risen dramatically and we now feel the bar is simply too high. In turn, we are downgrading the stock to Neutral from Buy and removing our price target.”
The company has been the dominant recipient of ad dollars for social media, period. BTIG would like nothing more than for them to suffer a pig’s death now, in order to look right and the lecture all of us about the virtues of risk analysis.
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