Out Fox The $treet

  Meta Platforms is set to retest the recent lows at $185. The company faces tough user comps due to COVID pull forwards similar to what has hit Netflix. The stock is cheap at less than 14x '23 EPS targets, but a bounce off the recent lows is key to whether the stock is safe to buy here. Looking for a helping hand in the market? Members of Out Fox The Street get exclusive ideas and guidance to navigate any climate.  Learn More » After a disastrous start to 2022,  Meta Platforms  ( NASDAQ: FB ) appears to have set a bottom with the steep plunge in early February leading to a low of $185 in March. The social media company remains in  growth mode despite the obvious concerns about the advertising business model and COVID pull forwards in 2021. My  investment thesis  is vastly more Bullish on the stock trading near $200 with a lot of the expected near-term weakness built into the price. Read the full article on Seeking Alpha.  Disclosure: No position...

  Meta Platforms reported a horrible quarter in the first quarterly report after changing its name from Facebook. The social media platform is now losing over $13 billion annually on the Reality Labs segment focused on the Metaverse. The stock isn't investable with the disconnect between revenue growth and soaring expenses leading to massive EPS cuts going forward. Looking for a portfolio of ideas like this one? Members of Out Fox The Street get exclusive access to our model portfolio.  Learn More » Read the full article on Seeking Alpha.  Disclosure: No position. Please review the disclaimer page for more details.  The article is currently the top trending one on Seeking Alpha. 

Facebook has a new product with far more potential than a digital coin. Facebook Watch now has a MAU base of 720 million that far tops other social platforms. The video streaming service is forecast to top $5 billion in annual revenues. The stock has already rallied $30 off the monthly lows suggesting an ideal entry will come after a pause. While the market is focused on the  digital coin hype , Facebook ( FB ) has a hot new product that is already generating substantial revenues. The key to success in the large-cap tech space has traditionally centered around products that keep the company true to their core. Facebook has hit on a winner with Facebook Watch, which is a similar ad-supported product that is boosting growth. Read the full article on Seeking Alpha.  Disclosure: No position mentioned. Please review the disclaimer page for more details.  

After the close, Facebook (FB) reported Q4 results that smashed estimates. The stock is up 12% in initial after-hours trading and will likely stay above $150 for good now.

  Recode has a nice graph slowing the sudden slow down in US and Canada social media users on Facebook (FB) , Twitter ( TWTR ) and Snap ( SNAP ) . All 3 major platforms saw users decline during 2018. The question is whether any of these stocks offer investment opportunities in 2019.

Facebook set 2018 targets so low that the company has an easy hurdle in 2019. EPS estimates are already starting to trend higher, and the stock is following. The company will lower expense growth estimates throughout this year. A focus on family DAUs will provide support for long-term revenue growth. The stock trades at about 18x ultimate '19 EPS estimates of $8. Though   Facebook   ( FB ) continued to collapse with the market correction leading to the Christmas Eve massacre where the stock dipped to $123, the company set the seeds for a bottom in early December. The large stock buyback and an   altered DNA   has the company positioned for a better 2019 while the market is busy looking backward at the adjustments already made by CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Read the full article on Seeking Alpha.  Disclosure: Long TWTR. Please review the disclaimer page for more details.   

Facebook continues to face a very negative news flow. Users deleting Facebook appears to have already peaked. The EPS trend has started heading back up. An additional $9 billion stock buyback authorization helps shift investor sentiment back positive. When a stock quits going down on negative news, the stock has probably hit the lows.  Facebook  ( FB ) finds itself in that position with an ongoing negative news flow and a stock that has rallied off the November 19 low and held in the face of a another market selloff. My  investment thesis  was negative on the stock when $150 didn't hold, but the thesis is shifting back bullish here below $140. Read the full article at Seeking Alpha. 

Facebook smashed Q3 EPS estimates as analysts likely overcorrected on cost estimates. The social networking platform still faces significant margin pressure in 2019. 2019 analyst estimates still need to contract before investors can get an all-clear on the stock at the $150 level. Prior to its  Q3 earnings report , my  investment thesis  on  Facebook (NASDAQ: FB ) was focused on the double hits the company was taking for the same issues. The thesis further supported that the social networking giant was likely to beat estimates, as costs failed to materialize as projected. The stock is a Buy with a $150 reference point as soon as analysts lower EPS estimates for 2019. Read the full article on Seeking Alpha. 

Social media stocks are down significantly this week as Facebook (FB) comes under extra scrutiny due to data and privacy issues. The opportunity remains in Twitter (TWTR) on this dip.

eMarketer predicts that Facebook (FB) will actually lose users in the under 24 age group this year. And the social networking giant isn't losing small amounts.

Facebook provided Congress with data on Russian accounts that advertised on the platform. The scope and impact of the Russian ads are very minimal. The costs of additional ad reviewers is easily absorbed by the platform. Facebook  (NASDAQ: FB ) continues to face government and potentially regulatory pressure from allowing Russian ads that attempted to influence the 2016 U.S. elections. The stock has struggled to gain momentum in the last couple of months, making one question whether trouble is looming ahead. Read the full article on Seeking Alpha.  Disclosure: No position. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

Facebook continues trading teen users on their different social platforms causing higher costs. The company is still predicting higher cost growth for the year and will be a key indicator on the Q2 earnings report. Facebook remains expensive considering the limited earnings growth. It definitely isn't news that Facebook (NASDAQ: FB ) has a teen issue, but it clearly hasn't hurt the stock. The real issue is whether the stock is worth $240 billion if the group of social networking sites is only swapping out users including teens. Read the full article on Seeking Alpha. Disclosure: No positions mentioned. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

Summary Facebook stock remains disconnected from user trends. ARPU gains making shorting the stock difficult for now. New products and apps remain wild cards. The monetization machine of Facebook (NASDAQ: FB ) continued in full force during Q214. The machine is great at showing better ads to users and collecting higher fees from advertisers. What the social network site hasn't done is indicate to the market that users are locked into the service for eternity. Read the full article at Seeking Alpha. Disclosure: No positions mentioned. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

Facebook ( NASDAQ: FB     ) remains a story of slowing user trends and surging monetization metrics. Wall Street likes to focus on revenue growth and the shift to mobile, but the real story is the peaking user base and limited growth in the developed world. The social media giant now has 1.28 billion monthly active users, or MAUs. But the real issue is the engagement of those users. The news reports continue to suggest lower user engagement, especially in the younger crowds, but the headline numbers from Facebook don't necessarily match the reports. Read full article here . Disclosure: No positions mentioned. Please read disclaimer page for more details.

One thing is for sure regarding Facebook's ( FB ) purchase of WhatsApp: it signaled a desperate move regarding the future of social media. The social media giant is now faced with not only a teenage problem , but also a clear indication that it is unable to design the next hip app. The Q413 earnings call less than a month ago focused heavily on the Messenger product that it has now spent $19 billion to replace. Facebook is now stuck buying hot apps in an area where a new one might pop up every week considering the large prize on the line. Read the full article at Seeking Alpha. Disclosure: No positions mentioned. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

The leading social network site continues to trade near all-time highs despite another report that magnifies the teen issue. According to a updated demographics study from iStrategyLabs, Facebook ( FB ) has an expanding teen issue magnified by the results of the report. Considering the thesis isn't new, investors aren't taking these studies seriously though the threat is very real and possibly unavoidable at this point. As highlighted a couple of weeks back in How Much Is Facebook Worth As An Internet Utility , the issue isn't whether Facebook remains a viable social network, but whether it is worth the current valuation of nearly 19x revenue. Read the full article at Seeking Alpha. Disclosure: Short FB. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

It may not come as a surprise that Facebook  ( NASDAQ: FB     ) has a teenager problem, especially in the more developed U.S. market. But the degree of that problem, as outlined in a recently released U.K. study , should shock even the most bullish of investors. Not only did the research find that Facebook has issues with teenagers, it found that teenagers in the U.K. find the site an embarrassment to use. Facebook's monetization in Europe greatly lags domestic rates. If teens are ditching the site in droves, Facebook might have a difficult time monetizing the site in the U.K. and other countries. In no big surprise, teens are moving to SnapChat, WhatsApp, Instagram, and  Twitter  ( NYSE: TWTR     ) to fulfill the social functions once dominated by Facebook. Read the full article here . Disclosure: Short Facebook. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

With more signs that the younger generation is fleeing Facebook ( FB ), including the recent UK study suggesting the leading social site is already dead to teens across the pond, it might be time to consider the proper valuation as Facebook becomes an Internet utility. Sure it has Instagram that is still hip, but in the social media sector it seems all but inevitable that a utility type service is the future for Facebook. The good news is that the future could provide the next Yahoo ( YHOO ) , while the downside is always lined with the remains of MySpace and others. Read the full article at Seeking Alpha. Disclosure: Short FB. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

After large gains following successful IPOs, it is common for a company to do a follow-on offering, allowing for pre-IPO shareholders to cash out. Recent history in hot Internet follow-on offerings have signaled a top in the stock, at least temporarily. While most would debate if the IPO was really successful, currently hot Facebook ( NASDAQ: FB     ) announced plans to sell 70 million shares by the company and its shareholders. The leading social media firm follows other hot social media stocks, including LinkedIn ( NYSE: LNKD     ) and Yelp ( NYSE: YELP     ) that had similar offerings. Those stocks have underperformed the markets in the months following the related offerings. Read the full article here . Disclosure: Short FB. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

As mentioned many times in the past, Facebook ( FB ) executives appeared in denial over the teen usage debate. Over and over the executives have claimed that teen usage and engagement continues to grow while every credible report suggests teens no longer favor the social network. Most of the debate probably stems from semantics of what counts as teen usage. Sure teens still use the site on possibly a monthly or even daily basis and possibly even more kids use the site as parents become more and more comfortable allowing them access to it. In that essence, Facebook might technically have been correct all along that teen usage remained strong. Evidence all along continues to suggest that teen engagement and interest in using the service continues to decline. Piper Jaffray again disclosed that the teen survey it conducts places Twitter ( TWTR ) and Instagram as favorites. In fact, the below chart showcases how Facebook popularity has plunged in the last year. Read the full...