Facebook Stock (FB) Keeps Riding Hate Straight to the Bank

by Robert Martin | July 25, 2014 9:41 am

Haters gonna hate.

facebook-stock-fb-haterz

Source: ©iStock.com/FLDphotos

That’s what fans of Facebook (FB[1]) are saying after this week’s release of the American Customer Satisfaction Index[2], which gave social media sites some not-so-hot rankings. And of all the social media sites, Facebook tied LinkedIn (LNKD[3]) for the worst on the list.

LinkedIn doesn’t seem quite as hated as Facebook, if you ask me — but with a nearly 20% year-to-date drop in the books, it’s hard to argue that the company is shrugging off the hate.

Facebook stock, on the other hand, is making investors some serious cash … and the social media site is no stranger to hate. Heck, just consider Facebook’s recent user manipulation study, which sparked privacy and ethical concerns. Remember, researchers at Facebook changed what 700,000 users saw in their news feeds — making some feeds more positive and others more negative in order to see if it had an effect on user moods.

Again, there was outrage and media arguments and lots of chatter, but Facebook stock wasn’t fazed … and neither were FB execs. Sure, Sheryl Sandberg apologized for not “communicating” it better, but that’s pretty much saying “Sorry we’re not sorry.”

You’d probably have a similar attitude if you were Facebook, though. There was lots of hate after Facebook stock stumbled onto the public markets thanks to its now-infamous botched and ugly IPO. That mishap actually had everyone asking if Twitter (TWTR[4]) could “learn from Facebook’s mistakes” — something that seems a bit laughable now considering shares of the micro-blogging site have been sliced by 40% year-to-date.

Oh, and shares of Facebook stock went public in 2012 at $38, are currently trading for almost double that price, and have booked 37% gain in 2014 alone — a performance that blows away the 7% climb of tech stocks in the Nasdaq.

But the hate doesn’t even end there. FB has also weathered less-serious accusations of “losing its cool.” And then there was all the chatter that the mobile mega-trend would destroy Facebook stock.

Again, a bit laughable in hindsight. Heck, in the wake of the recently released Facebook earnings report — which, I should mention, was stellar — Derek Thompson of The Atlantic [5]wrote a story called “Facebook Is Eating Mobile” — a title followed by the tagline “It’s amazing to think that just two years ago, we all thought mobile was eating Facebook.”

In fact, his lede actually reference another journalist expressing a similar sentiment: That he had been a Facebook stock hater, and that he was oh-so wrong.

And did I mention Facebook now commands one-third of mobile ad spend, and that shares popped 5% yesterday alone after earnings beat expectations and revenue exploded?

Yeah, haters gonna hate. And Facebook stock, apparently, is going to keep climbing.

Still don’t believe me? Fine — just look at founder Mark Zuckerberg for proof. Zuck himself has gotten plenty of hate, with many saying the hoodie-wearing college dropout should have handed over the reins of his baby. But Zuckerberg has made more than $3 billion from cashed-out Facebook stock alone since the 2012 IPO, all while shares keep on climbing. In fact, the 30-year-old almost has a $1 billion for every year of his life, good enough to make him the 22nd richest man in the world, according to [6]Bloomberg[7]. 

If that doesn’t shut the haters up, I’m not sure what will.

As of this writing, Robert Martin did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.

Endnotes:

  1. FB: /stock-quotes/FB-stock-quote/
  2. American Customer Satisfaction Index: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/and-americas-most-hated-social-media-company-is-2014-07-22?dist=beforebell
  3. LNKD: /stock-quotes/LNKD-stock-quote/
  4. TWTR: /stock-quotes/TWTR-stock-quote/
  5. Derek Thompson of The Atlantic : http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/07/facebook-is-eating-mobile/374943/
  6. according to : http://www.bloomberg.com/video/zuckerberg-turns-30-22nd-richest-person-on-earth-SGPuoWsgQVO8PYZeK27VIw.html
  7. Bloomberg: http://www.bloomberg.com/video/zuckerberg-turns-30-22nd-richest-person-on-earth-SGPuoWsgQVO8PYZeK27VIw.html

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