Diamonds and Dogs
5/18/12
Facebook Inc. (FB)What happened with the Facebook IPO? The most highly anticipated IPO did nothing today, finishing the day up just 0.6%, at $38.23 (For institutional investors and a few retail investors who were able to get in at the $38.00 mark). Facebook opened trading today at $42.50, and took a steep decline right down to the institutional price level of $38.00. The underwriters quickly went into action re-buying shares at $38.00 to stabilize the shares and keep them from declining lower than the offering price. Throughout the day there was very little movement, reaching a high of $45.00 for only a few seconds(right at the open) before dropping again. Coming into the close of the market, shares again declined to the $38.00 range. This poor performance shocked analysts and investors alike. Many people were expecting a good spike in the share price yet it never came, leaving many people puzzled. Did it not do as well because there were too many shares offered? Was it the delayed start that scared investors? Did the fact that many verification reports were never received by the brokers play a role? A stock that was expected to be a day trader's homerun became a buy and hold, leaving many holding their breath waiting to see if the pop in price will come. "Flop"book is a bust today, disappointing many investors.
Salesforce.com Inc.(CRM)
Salesforce.com was in full force today, up 8.95% at $145.77. The company reported first-quarter earnings and sales that beat Wall Street analysts' forecasts and the company also gave a better-than-expected second-quarter outlook. CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets analyst, Ed Maguire, upgraded the company to Buy from Outperform. He also set a new price target of $180, up from $160. Maguire said, "Improved confidence that growing revenue visibility, healthy business momentum and operational discipline can deliver sustained upside." He also added that the backlog and growing contribution coming in from long-term deals "speak volumes about customer commitment (rather than sales tactics) and this builds a baseline for upward revision as management demonstrates margin leverage." Salesforce.com had a great bounce today, one that was thought to have come from Facebook.
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