Facebook ended their first day of trading without underwriters propping them up and stock prices closed at nearly 11% below their targeted $38 per share price. Prices have been fluctuating all day, but the general trend suggests a $30 to $34 price range might have better suited the IPO.
As we reported earlier, Friday’s trading was plagued by poor sales and a communication issue that delayed the start of the IPO by thirty minutes. Since todays trading didn’t reflect a renewed interest in owning a piece of the social giant, I think we can expect to see some variety of action from Facebook and its underwriters in the days to come. We have yet to hear any official words from Facebook on the lackluster IPO launch, but it sounds like CEO Mark Zuckerberg might have his mind elsewhere for the next couple of days.
According to CBS Money Watch, the Facebook IPO was a success based on the fact that it closed so closely to the $38 per share target price on Friday. This indicates it is fairly priced and creating a modest demand. Others believe the IPO was a failure due to the fact that underwriters had to buy the stock to keep trading up to the $38 price.
Now that that period is over and we see trading trending more around the $34 price range, I will be curious to see what attitude the market takes. If you remember, many industry experts have been warning that Facebook is way overvalued already and therefor not a good investment as the numbers stand right now.
I guess we’ll see what tomorrow brings and hear what analysts have to say about Facebook closing at $34 today. As I’ve already said, I expect some kind of action, but maybe we are all just over analyzing the issue, and Facebook is doing just fine. After all, the Nasdaq says the IPO was a success overall, just not as spectacular as some would have hoped.
