-- Buying 1,000 shares of Facebook (FB).
We've raised some cash after taking gains in the China ETF (FXI) and Mondelez (MDLZ) and are going to put it to work today in a new name.
We're going to buy 1,000 shares of Facebook (FB), which has a bid/ask of $28.84/$28.85.
We want to add growth to the portfolio as well as increase our technology weighting. Plus, we find the 11.8% share price decline off of recent highs and 37% drop from its IPO as a good time to get into the shares. We're encouraged that the company is addressing the big question (and one of the main fundamental reasons the stock is down from its IPO price) of mobile monetization and has shown progress on this front in the last two quarters. We expect that it will continue to focus on getting mobile monetization right, which is why expenses will remain higher than initially expected. But as it continues to show growth in this metric we believe shares could get back to the upper $30s.
FB is the largest online social network. The statistics are impressive, with 900 million monthly active users, more than 500 million daily users and a truly global presence with the U.S. being less than 20% of traffic and 50% of total revenue. Its massive user base is one any company would love to have and by sharing its user data and technology with partners it is cementing its status as owning many people's identities within FB and across the Internet. Users go to FB for a variety of reasons to communicate with friends/family, play games and share information. This information is invaluable for the company and advertisers. In the past year, advertisers have spent more than $3.1 billion and this is before they really understand the growth dynamics. At the end of the day, FB is capturing data and online/user activity that over time will lead to significant online advertising market share.
The biggest question is mobile monetization. We have that question too. But the last two quarters did a lot to make us feel it was on its way to getting more profitable. First, the company posted better-than-expected revenues and managed expenses to an in-line level. Revenues beat expectations and grew 40%, earnings beat and EBITDA also bested consensus. Advertising revenue accounted for $1.3 billion of the total $1.5 billion sales reported. This was 41% growth y/y and easily took market share. Monthly average users rose 25% y/y to 1.06 billion people globally and daily average users increased 28% y/y and increased 6% q/q. Mobile monthly average users increased 12% q/q and the mobile revenue segment grew to 23% of total advertising sales to $306 million, which is 100% growth sequentially. About 65% of FB's advertisers now advertise on mobile and because of this increase ARPU improved 12% y/y. Finally, the mobile revenue run rate at the end of the quarter was $1 billion vs. nothing a year ago. The company expects that expenses will be higher this year, tied to heavy reinvestment spend, something that we like to see in a growth company.
Shares are not cheap at 49.9x 2013 earnings and 36.8x 2014 earnings. But we see a sustainable 35-40% growth rate, which could be conservative as it utilizes its user base and expand its mobile platform.
After our trade we'll own 1,000 FB, or 0.95%.