Facebook stock plummets $120 billion this week
Shares of Facebook fell 19 percent on Thursday, a day after the world’s largest social media company disclosed that its quarterly revenue did not live up to expectations and that its user metrics grew slower than some on Wall Street had predicted. The stock closed down 19% Thursday to $176.26, which means that investors erased the entirety of the company’s 2018 gains. Its market capitalization as of Wednesday: $630 billion.
photo/Gerd Altmann
The dollar value of the loss was the largest ever by a publicly traded company in the U.S.
Facebook stock had recovered from a decline earlier this year in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, one of several controversies and warning signs that the company had managed to weather with little damage to its stock. But declining revenue and user growth, topped by a warning from executives that it will continue, seemed to end that run. (MarketWatch)
“The guidance, it’s nightmare guidance,” GBH Insights head of technology research Daniel Ives said. “If you look at their forecast for the second half of the year in terms of user growth, and the expense profile, it refuels the fundamental worries about Facebook post-Cambridge Analytica.”
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth plummeted more than $15 billion with the stock dive, although it’s still around $67 billion, according to Forbes’ real-time net worth tracker. (Variety)
On a bright note, hedge funds got blown up on the surprising Facebook news.
