Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) received a number of price target changes and ratings updates during the last week:

  • Facebook had its “outperform” rating reaffirmed by analysts at Robert W. Baird.
  • Facebook had its price target lowered by analysts at Needham & Company from $40.00 to $25.00. They now have a “buy” rating on the stock.
  • Facebook had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by analysts at Jefferies Group. They now have a $30.00 price target on the stock. They wrote, “In an appearance at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference, Zuckerberg said FB would enter the search business ‘at some point,’ confirming speculation it will pursue new areas of business over time. Overall, we see upside as FB users increasingly search for brands, places, and apps – inherently valuable commercially-oriented queries. But we won’t get too excited until we hear more details, and we note the overlap with GOOG is low.”
  • Facebook had its “equal weight” rating reaffirmed by analysts at Evercore Partners.
  • Facebook had its “overweight” rating reaffirmed by analysts at JPMorgan Chase. They wrote, “In a wide-ranging interview Tuesday after the market close at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was incrementally positive on the company’s mobile opportunity based on higher engagement and monetization potential relative to the desktop. He also openly discussed the company’s strategic misstep in emphasizing HTML5 over native apps early on, and indicated Facebook would ultimately move more into search. We remain positive on Facebook as we expect Advertising revenue to re-accelerate in 2H12 and into 2013 and we believe the risk/reward is attractive with Facebook trading at 8.4x 2014E EBITDA.”
  • Facebook had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by analysts at Topeka Capital. They now have a $36.00 price target on the stock. They wrote, “We came away from Mark Zuckerberg’s first public presentation since the IPO incrementally more positive on his ability to manage Facebook’s mobile transition and to bring to fruition the optionality we see embedded in the platform. Speaking at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference yesterday, Zuckerberg sounded confident that Facebook can monetize mobile and extend the platform to online search. Importantly, Zuckerberg stated that while FB is a mission driven company (building great services to make the world more connected and open) they are also business driven (making money) and the two concepts are interrelated into the company’s philosophy. This should assuage fears that a focus on their mission trumps monetization efforts at the firm.”
  • Facebook had its “outperform” rating reaffirmed by analysts at Oppenheimer. They wrote, “Zuckerberg believes people misunderstand FB’s mobile opportunity. CEO Mark Zuckerberg explains that the drop in the stock price could be due to investors misunderstanding the company’s mobile opportunity. Six months ago there was not a single ad on mobile, and today the company has numerous ad products. Important aspects of mobile: 1) more potential users–more phones thancomputers; 2) user engagement is higher–two times more likely to be a daily user and the number of stories consumed has doubled since launch of new mobile app; and 3) FB likely will make more money on mobile than desktop–desktop display product was a stand-alone effort (albeit a multi-billion dollar business), whereas mobile is integrated, with ads performing better–Sponsored Stories have higher CPC and CTR. CEO admits that focus on HTML 5 was probably biggest mistake in company’s history, but coming out of that now. FB published native app oniOS as quickly as possible, but more changes are to come. Android app is coming “hopefully soon.” This is the driver of the previously comment on the number of stories consumed.”
  • Facebook had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by analysts at Capstone. They now have a $26.00 price target on the stock.

Facebook opened at 21.87 on Wednesday. Facebook has a 1-year low of $17.55 and a 1-year high of $45.00. The company has a market cap of $46.854 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of 75.67.

Facebook, Inc. (Facebook) is engaged in building products to create utility for users, developers, and advertisers.