Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) continues to soar above its initial public offering (IPO) price. On Monday, shares of the social networking giant are up by nearly 3% to $39.06 per share in afternoon trading in New York.
The surge in Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)’ stock value was propelled by a report released by Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, who noted that the social network giant will be able to post stronger-than-expected earnings in 2014 due to its upcoming video ads.
In addition, Muster projected that Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) will be able to outperform the 2014 revenue estimates of Wall Street analysts by $330 million if the social network giant will be able to generate 5% of online revenue ads next year. The company is expected to launch its online video ads in the latter part of 2013.
Furthermore, Munster also emphasized that the social network giant will also be able to monetize Instagram by 2015 or later. In June, the social network giant added video sharing capability on the popular photo-sharing app, which allows users to take and share 5 to 10 seconds of video.
Munster said the launching of the online video ads gave him more confidence for his advertising growth outlook for Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB). The analyst maintained his Overweight rating for the stock and raised his price target from $38 to $46 per share.
Facebook to launch TV-style commercials
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) is planning to sell 15-second TV style commercials on users’ feeds later this year, according to a report from Bloomberg, Triggit CEO, Zach Coelius believe that the plan offers a huge opportunity for the social network giant. He said, “We are finally starting to see how powerful Facebook as an advertising platform, and rolling out video if they do it, I don’t know anything about it myself, but if they do this it could be huge, it’s a big deal.”
Meanwhile, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) announced the appointment of Gary Briggs as marketing officer. Briggs served as marketing chief of Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc (NYSE:MMI). He will succeed Eric Antonow, vice president of product marketing of Facebook, who will pursue a project in his interest-education.
