Executive Summary
This investment report seeks to present information about the financial position, performance, and liquidity of Facebook, Inc., as well as its relation to the industry and major competitors to provide recommendations for investing in the company. The financial analysis shows that the performance of Facebook, Inc. has been consistent with the growth of the tech industry and social networking all over the world. Although the company’s stock prices were affected by the recent data privacy scandal, its position in the tech industry remains solid. Moreover, Facebook, Inc. outperforms most of its major competitors in the tech industry, showing excellent results in return on assets, return on equity, and gross profit margin. Therefore, the report suggests that the recent drop in stock prices presents a good investment opportunity and that Facebook, Inc. could contribute to the company’s investment portfolio.
Introduction
Facebook, Inc. originated in 2004 when Mark Zuckerberg developed and launched Facebook (Bellis 2018). Within several years, Facebook became the leading social network, widely used across the United States, Europe, and the rest of the world. The company went public in 2012, which was followed by a list of high-scale mergers and acquisitions (Boyd 2018). Today, Facebook, Inc. is a major tech corporation that owns a significant share of the tech sector in the U.S. and Europe. Apart from owning social networking giants, such as Instagram, Facebook, and What’s App, Facebook, Inc. has also acquired smaller companies, such as Friendster, Sofa, Friend.ly, Lightbox.com, Oculus VR, and more (Toth 2018).
The recent controversy surrounding Facebook, Inc. originated during the 2016 Presidential election in the United States, when Facebook was “accused of failing to thwart Russia’s attempts to manipulate the 2016 U.S. election and enabling the rapid spread of fake news” (Spangler 2018, para. 3). In addition to that, reports of data privacy violations affected the users’ trust in the company. The most recent issue for Facebook, Inc. was the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which revealed that the personal data of 50 million Facebook users was obtained by a major political-advertising company, which could have influenced the 2016 elections (Grant 2018). The information will likely lead to congressional hearings to determine if there was a deliberate privacy violation, as well as in new regulations imposed on the tech industry (Grant 2018). Consequently, the market value and share price of Facebook, Inc. have already suffered due to the events, and so did the trust of social network users: according to a report released in March 2018, 84% of Facebook users are concerned with the incorrect use of their private data, whereas 43.4% will either use Facebook less or stop using the website altogether if the reports of data misuse by Cambridge Analytica will be confirmed (Spangler 2018). Potentially, such reactions would lead to financial and performance losses.
Following the controversy, Facebook, Inc. lost about $100 billion in market value (Klein 2018). Many consider this to be a sign not to invest in Facebook until the company manages to recover its reputation and return market value. Indeed, if evidence of an intentional violation of privacy is found, the company will suffer a major reputation crisis, which will affect not just Facebook but all other social networking apps and platforms owned by the corporation. However, some believe that the current situation presents an excellent opportunity for companies or individuals to invest in Facebook, Inc. (Divine 2018; Parks 2018). One of the best ways to determine if this is true is to look at the company’s present financial position, performance, and other factors affecting future growth.
Financial Position
The financial position of the company represents its current status and includes an explanation of its assets, liabilities, and owners’ equity (Wilkinson 2013). The financial position of a company provides important information about its financial health and is thus a good source of information for prospective investors. It is particularly useful to perform a horizontal analysis of financial position metrics to determine how they developed over time (Dyer et al. 2016)
Assets
As seen in Table 1, in 2017, Facebook, Inc. had 84,524 million USD in total assets, an increase of almost $20 billion from the previous year, and an over 200% increase from 2014. The most prominent types of assets increased were marketable securities, and property and equipment (Facebook, Inc. 2017). Both developments were probably linked to the 2016-2017 acquisitions, as well as to the company’s geographical expansion, prompting an increase in the number of offices and servers. Although an increase in property and equipment could help the company to develop and grow, it could also prompt increased costs in the future, and thus requires precise attention. On the other hand, the growth of current assets through marketable securities is beneficial, as it contributes to the company’s liquidity.
Table 1. Total assets by year.
Liabilities
For a company of its size and scale, Facebook Inc. has a rather low value of total liabilities (10,117 million USD). However, Table 2 shows that the company’s liabilities have grown by $4billion in 2017, which was mainly due to the increase in “other liabilities” (Facebook, Inc. 2017). A share of these liabilities came from unrecognized tax benefits and financing obligations, which will either be written off or paid by the company once the position is resolved. Overall, the change in the company’s liabilities is explained and does not pose a concern since total liabilities can be covered by assets.
Table 2. Total liabilities by year.
Owners’ Equity
Stockholders’ equity is another important determinant of the company’s financial position, especially if it is considered for investment. In this regard, Facebook, Inc. paints a positive picture, with $74,347 million in total stockholders’ equity in 2017. As seen in Table 2, compared to 2013, owners’ equity of Facebook, Inc. grew by almost 500% and increased by 15 billion USD during the 2017 fiscal year. The increase is attributable to the growing popularity of online services, as well as by the corporation’s strong list of subsidiaries. Owners’ equity could suffer some fluctuations due to the recent scandal, but as long as the company retains its major performance contributors, such as Instagram, What’s App, and Facebook, the stockholders’ equity will continue to grow.
Table 3. Stakeholders’ equity by year.
Financial Performance
The financial performance of the company also has a significant impact on investment decisions. However, not all financial measures and ratios apply to Facebook, Inc. in the current situation. The three key metrics that are important to the present analysis are the Return on Assets, the Return on Equity, and the Gross Profit Margin.
The Return on Assets is important as it shows if the company makes good use of its assets. Given that Facebook’s assets have grown considerably throughout the year, it is useful to include it in the analysis. In 2017, the company’s net income was at 15.93 billion USD, whereas its total assets were 84.52 billion USD. The ROA is 18.8%, which is a good figure for the tech industry. For instance, one of the major competitors of Facebook Inc., Twitter, Inc. has a ROA of -1.4% (Twitter Inc. 2018).
The Return on Equity, on the other hand, is useful for determining if the company uses investments effectively, which is also an important metric for making investment decisions (Dyer et al. 2016). In Facebook, Inc., the ROE is 21.4%. This is also a plausible value for the tech industry, considering that the result of Alphabet, Inc., which is considered to be among the industry leaders, was at 8.3% (Alphabet Inc. 2018).
Lastly, the Gross Profit Margin (GPM) is among the key indicators of financial performance as it shows the relationship between revenues and costs (Dyer et al. 2016). In 2017, Facebook’s GPM was at 86.58%, which is an excellent result for the industry (Facebook Inc. 2018). One of the reasons for such a high GPM is that the products offered by Facebook, Inc. have a relatively low cost. For instance, advertisement on Facebook and Instagram is highly profitable due to the low costs associated with it. The high GPM positively distinguishes Facebook from many of its competitors. Alphabet, Inc. has a GPM of 58.94%, whereas Twitter, Inc. has a GPM of 64.77% (Alphabet Inc. 2018; Twitter Inc. 2018).
Liquidity
Liquidity is essential for analysis as it determines whether or not the investors are likely to experience any financial trouble after investing funds into a company (Kennon 2018). For instance, if a company has significant liquidity issues, it might fail to cover its debt and become bankrupt, which would harm all stakeholders. In the case of Facebook, Inc., liquidity is critical, as the company might be subject to fines or losses due to the data privacy issue. Two metrics help to evaluate liquidity: the current ratio and the acid-test ratio (Dyer et al. 2016).
Evaluating the current ratio and the acid-test ratio is relatively easy and can be done using a rule of thumb. Dyer et al. (2016), note that a good value of the current ratio is above 2, whereas the acid-test ratio should be above 1. Facebook, Inc. has excellent results in both ratios, with a current ratio of 13.2 and an acid-test ratio of 22.8. Such results are probably due to a significant share of current assets and low debts and other liabilities; this means that even if the company faces fines or other financial trouble as a result of the controversy, it will not become bankrupt and investors will not lose their money.
Major Competitors and the Industry
Overall, Facebook, Inc. occupies a solid position in the tech sector. The corporation has some large competitors, including Snapchat, Google, Twitter, and other big industry players (Bhasin 2018). However, the position of Facebook, Inc. in terms of profitability and liquidity is more favorable, meaning that it will likely stand the competition despite the current turmoil.
The general outlook for the tech industry is promising, which will likely result in the continued growth of Facebook, Inc. For instance, as noted by MacBride (2017), Facebook now seeks to expand its presence in new markets, including Russia and China, which will bring more profits to the organisation. Besides, Facebook, Inc. is determined to develop new features and services to attract more customers, which will also aid in its development.
Recommendations
All in all, the decision to invest in Facebook, Inc. would be rather controversial. On the one hand, many analytics predict a further decrease in stock price, and the customers are increasingly dissatisfied with privacy protection (Brumley 2017). On the other hand, Facebook is now taking action to restore its reputation and maintain a positive course of development in the future. Furthermore, even if the company faces any financial trouble as a result of the events, it will be able to cover any fines or debts using its current assets. It is also notable that the company remains an industry leader in social networking and outperforms its competitors in terms of ROA, ROE, and GPM. Overall, the future outlook for Facebook, Inc. seems promising, and the low stock price can thus be a valuable opportunity for investment, and the company can use Facebook, Inc. to enhance its investment profile.
Conclusion
On the whole, Facebook, Inc. is an example of an excellent investment opportunity. The company has a long history of success in the tech industry and remains one of the key industry players despite the recent accusations. The financial analysis of Facebook, Inc. showed that the company has excellent profitability and liquidity and outperforms its competitors in ROE, ROA, and GPM. Given this information, it is likely that Facebook, Inc. will be able to recover from the trust crisis and grow the stock price, making it a worthwhile investment opportunity.
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