Facebook Stock Down More Than 50%, Schadenfreude Still Rising

Facebook stock has reached a new low following news that analysts at Bank of America/Merrill Lynch and Bank of Montreal have lowered their price target for the stock.

“Revenue pressure from growing mobile usage, a larger-than-expected social gaming revenue slowdown, higher spending and lock-up expiration are overhangs that, in our view, will continue to impact the stock in 2012,” said Bank of America-Merrill Lynch analysts.

“We remain constructive on FB’s opportunity to drive an acceleration in revenue growth from new ad formats,” one of the BOA analysts wrote. “We see the success of new ad formats as paramount for the stock.”

Meanwhile, elsewhere on the Internet, Henry Blodget of Business Insider compiled a detailed list of information he claims could have been gleaned by anyone who took the time to read Facebook’s IPO Prospectus or Mark Zuckerberg’s Letter to shareholders.

A sampling:

Facebook’s growth rate was decelerating rapidly.
Facebook’s user-base was rapidly transitioning to mobile devices, which produce much less revenue.
Facebook’s operating profit margin was already an astounding 50%, which suggested it had nowhere to go but down.
Facebook’s CEO had a nearly unprecedented amount of control over the company.
Facebook’s CEO had set up this astounding level of control intentionally. Mark Zuckerberg knew all about how impatient public-market shareholders are. And he set up the whole company so he would never have to pay attention to their whining.

Facebook Shares Hit New Lows [WSJ]

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