Houston: Shares of social networking giant Facebook jumped by more than 8 per cent to close at nearly $26 per share on Monday - the highest price the stock has seen since the summer - on news of multiple analyst upgrades. Facebook shares rose $1.94 to close at $25.94 per share.
The movement marks the latest potential for Facebook to emerge as a steady-growing business in the wake of a tepid initial public offering response and growth concerns. The round of optimism comes from BTIG analyst Richard Greenfield and Bernstein Research analyst Carlos Kirjner.
Greenfield forecasts Facebook's revenue is poised to boom in the fourth quarter because more ads are appearing in the mobile news feeds on its application. "Facebook probably can increase the number of ad impressions per user per day," Kirjner said, "with limited chance of seeing material deterioration in user experience."
For 2014, the analyst expects Facebook will hit revenue of nearly $8.7 billion, surpassing by 7 per cent the consensus estimate for $8 billion. Bernstein's analyst expects that such news feed ads will be Facebook's main driver of revenue growth.
In September, Facebook unleashed its Gifts service. The gift-giving feature could unlock new forms of revenue as the company experiments with such social commerce that allows people to exchange gift cards. Starbucks, Magnolia Bakery and 1-800-Flowers were among Facebook's 100 launch partners. On Monday, Facebook added iTunes digital gifts.
Shares of Facebook have been slowly gaining ground from a 52-week low of $17.55 on an improved advertising outlook for the company.
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