Facebook Inc (FB) Stock Upgraded To ‘Outperform’ By Bernstein

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Carlos Kirjner, analyst at Bernstein Research, is bullish on Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) in a recent report. According to him, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) could generate $1 billion for its Ad Exchange. He also projected that the social networking giant is capable of capturing as much as 50 percent of the advertising market through the Facebook Ad Exchange automated real-time bidding.

Facebook Inc (FB) Stock Upgraded To 'Outperform' By Bernstein

In his research note to investors, Kirjner wrote, “We are not aware of any reliable sizing of the current amount of display advertising spend placed through retargeting, but we believe it is in the rough order of $1 billion per year globally (gross) as it will correspond to only a portion probably in the order of 30% to 50% of total real-time-bidding (RTB), or “programmatic” spend.”

He upgraded his rating for Facebook stock from “market perform” to “outperform”, and increased his price target from $24 per share to $33 per share. Kirjner believes that Wall Street is conservative in their expectations on Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)’s revenue growth in the years ahead.

Kirjner said, “We think the consensus is underestimating Facebook’s revenue growth potential over the next 12-24 months.”

He estimated that the social networking giant would achieve approximately $6.98 billion revenue by 2013. His estimate is 9 percent higher than the $6.39 billion revenue consensus expectations of Wall Street analysts. He also projected that Facebook’s revenue in 2014 is around $8.65 billion, 7 percent higher than the $8.08 billion consensus estimate.

He pointed out Facebook’s strong financial performance within the next two years will come from its Ad Exchanges and news feed monetization from mobile devices and personal computers (PC).

“Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) probably can increase the number of ad impressions per user per day with limited chance of seeing material deterioration in user experience. We also believe that at this point and for the near-to-medium term, its revenue growth trajectory will be the main driver of Facebook’s stock performance. In addition to mobile, further monetization of the PC Newsfeed and the positive impact of the Facebook Exchange on right-hand-side column CPMs will help drive growth,” wrote Kirjner.

According to Kirjner, he perceived more upside than downside on Facebook stock over the next 12 months.

The stock price of Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) is up by almost 9 percent to $25.98 per share during the midday trading on Monday.

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