Evercore Upgrades Facebook on Advantages in Mobile Ad Networking

In a report published Thursday, Evercore analyst Ken Sena upgraded

from Equalweight to Overweight and raised the price target form $69.00 to $75.00 on opportunities and advantages. Sena noted the recent pullback in shares following the company's strong quarter, the FB Audience Network initiative (FAN), and additional advantages in the mobile ad networking arena. The analyst wrote, “Four distinct advantages for FB in the mobile ad networking arena: desktop scale (helped by its Atlas third-party ad server acquisition and Facebook Connect), its cross-device user log-in, mobile scale, and native ad formats.” Acknowledging user and developer competition concerns following the WhatsApp deal, Evercore remarked that Facebook can extend its network influence and further efforts to deliver video ads and new inventories. By leveraging its mobile scale, formats, and data, the analyst sees Facebook's FAN “initiative as having amplifying financial effect on ad innovation within its core, such as its furthering push into video.” Shares of Facebook closed at $60.49 on Wednesday. In Thursday's premarket trading, shares were up as much as 1.14 percent at $61.18. The stock spiked to $61.38 following the opening bell and shares are currently trading at $60.72.