Gene Munster's Three Reasons Why Virtual Reality Is 'Heating Up' At Facebook

In a report published Monday, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster maintained an Overweight rating on Facebook Inc FB, with a price target of $146, saying that the company’s shares were likely to be “positively impacted from the VR theme” over the next three months.

Analyst Gene Munster enumerated three reasons for Virtual Reality gaining popularity in the near term:

1. Oculus is scheduled to host a developer conference in September in LA. Oculus Connect 2 is aimed to address investor questions related to the VR use case.
2. The consumer version of Oculus, known as Rift, is likely to be available “slightly earlier than investors expect,” with sales commencing in the first half of 1Q16.
3. Piper Jaffray’s analysis of VR headcount through LinkedIn suggested that Facebook was “making the most aggressive investment” in VR talent, which “increases our confidence in Facebook's long term VR position.”

“Buyside expectations for the Oculus Rift launch are for the second half of Q1 2016, but our industry sources point to the first half of Q1 2016 with pre-orders potentially starting holiday 2015,” Munster said.

The analyst explained that although his expectation was “only a few weeks earlier,” this would result in Oculus being marketed “in time to take orders for holiday and also compete with the HTC Vive, which is expected to launch in December 2015.”