The FB stock price continues to hover close to its all-time high, and all is quiet. It must seem like a good time to shake things up, so the company has announced its new mission — and some new features to go along with it.
FB stock price to continue its bull run
InvestorPlace contributor Joseph Hargett argues that the lack of any kind of news is good for the FB stock price. He notes that the default setting for Wall Street is bullishness, so without any big news, stocks tend to drift gradually higher. Further, he feels that the FB stock price has been stuck in a four-year bull rally for the last four years, noting that it has skyrocketed by more than 500% over that timeframe, “guided higher by stalwart support from its 50-day and 20-day moving averages.
He added that the 50-day trendline for the FB stock price also held steady even during the widespread tech sell-off of June 9, making Facebook the only one of the FAANGs to remain firm. He also made the case for $160 being the next short-term target for the FB stock price, as he sees the shares as having been reset and now ready to resume the uptrend that have been enjoying for the last four years.
Options trades for the FB stock price
He expects Facebook and the other big tech stocks to shake off the bearish June and start shifting higher “now that some of the fluff has been blown out of the system.” He also offered up a couple of suggested options trades.
One suggested play on the FB stock price is the July $155/$160 bull call spread, which was priced at $1.74 or $174 per pair of contracts. In order to break even on this options trade, the FB stock price must rest at $156.74 when the contract expires. Investors will see the highest possible profit of $3.26 or $326 per pair of contracts of the FB stock price closes at $160 or above at the time of the July options expiration.
His other suggested play is a bit less bullish, and it’s the July $145 put sell. He expects the FB stock price to finish out of the money on this play. The bid on this put stood at 76 cents or $76 a contract. If the FB stock price remains higher than $145 through the options contract’s expiration, the trader will keep their premium, but if Facebook shares fall below that level before the expiration, the trader could have to pay $145 each for 100 shares of the company for every contract they bought.
Given that the FB stock price has been on a bullish bender for the last four years, it’s unlikely that this would be a very bad thing because this is one stock that’s likely to bounce back before too long.
A new mission for Facebook
Whenever the news is too quiet, it’s very common for companies to fill the void with whatever they like, and in Facebook’s case, it’s a new mission narrative. The social networking firm held its first Communities Summit today in Chicago, inviting hundreds of administrators for groups on the platform. In addition to revealing new features for Facebook Groups, the company also revealed their new mission, which is to “bring the world closer together.”
CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been traveling the nation and speaking to people in every state. Although he has repeatedly denied that he plans to run for office, there has been a decidedly political tone to many of the things he’s done, including this new mission he created for his company. Some would say that it seems to have something to do with fostering a fear of social media in global leaders. It’s an idea that makes sense because leaders may be less likely to make certain decisions if they’re concerned about backlash from social media coming as a result of a decision they have made.
Zuckerberg’s Facebook post announcing the new mission has a decidedly political tone to it, and the message’s tone is that of a company that feels it is saving the human race from itself. It’s a continuation of the vision he set forth in February when he first began to think about changing his company’s mission.
New Group features
Along with this greater focus on community, Facebook also showed off several new features for Group admins. One is called Group Insights, which are real-time membership, growth and engagement metrics. The social network also created a new way for admins to filter membership requests and to clean up content posted by a member who has been removed from a Group.
Admins can also schedule their posts for a specific time and day, and the company has begun testing group-to-group linking, which enables admins to recommend similar Groups to their members.
The FB stock price ticked higher by as much as 0.06% to $153.97 during regular trading hours on Thursday.
