We're Reiterating Our Facebook Outperform, JMP Says

In a report published Thursday, JMP Securities analysts maintained a Market Outperform rating on

, with a price target of $97, following the company's developer conference, F8, in San Francisco. In the report JMP Securities noted, "Overall, we believe Facebook is utilizing its scale across multiple verticals and brands--WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, and core Facebook--to expand engagement and capabilities. We believe the launch of the Messenger Platform and the opening of its API to third-party developers can lead to new product experiences around social, payments, and shopping. " Referring to video and publishing, the analysts said that Facebook seemed to be "in the early days of working with and hosting publisher content" and that they expect video "to be increasingly integrated both on and off Facebook's products and services." The additional takeaways mentioned in the report were "updates on LiveRail, share gains across its brands, and updates on Parse, where Parse is increasingly becoming a core part of the developer's ecosystem." The analysts believe that Facebook is "well positioned and is taking share of the overall advertising environment with multiple near-term catalysts around video, Instagram, and the Facebook Audience Network and long-term catalysts around the Messenger Platform, WhatsApp, and Oculus, coupled with the success in building large audiences across multiple apps."