Leading asset manager says time is right to buy Facebook stock
Carol Pepper, the chief executive of New York asset management firm Pepper International, has advised traders to buy Facebook stock while it’s low.
Public Pressure
Facebook has been under heavy public, political and financial pressure, as a result of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which revealed that nearly 100 million Facebook users had their personal data harvested. The Facebook share price has fallen by 11 percent since the story broke.
But Pepper, who was recognised as one of the 50 most influential women in the sector by Private Asset Management believes that this could be the perfect time to purchase Facebook shares.
“Let’s face it, they’re a revenue juggernaut. I think Mark Zuckerberg will continue to defend the company successfully, I think the stock will recover and they’ll continue to be a big cash earner. The dip is a buying opportunity as far as I’m concerned, and it is a good long-term hold.”
Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been appearing in front of the Commerce and Judiciary Committees on Capitol Hill this week, to offer testimony on how Facebook data was misused in the 2016 Presidential election and issues of user privacy.
Data Failure
Zuckerberg apologised for the company’s apparent failure to protect its users’ data and welcomed the introduction of what he described as the ‘right regulation’.
Markets reacted well to Zuckerberg’s appearance and Facebook’s share price rose as the hearing was broadcast live, recording the biggest one day gain in nearly 2 years, and restoring approximately $17 billion to the company’s market cap.
Pepper expressed her confidence in the long-term returns to be delivered by Facebook, as well as other tech giants: “Over 10 and 20 years, Amazon, Facebook, these kinds of stocks are going to continue to do extremely well. Yes, there will be volatility, but if you look at the rate of change and the direction over the last five, 10 years, it’s up. This is where all the profit is migrating to.”
GBH Insights are also sticking by their ‘highly attractive’ rating for Facebook stock, with their Head of Technology Research, Daniel Ives, saying that “so far, the fundamental damage to the Facebook platform has been ‘contained’ in our opinion and is better than feared.”