By Rex Crum, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Mixed investor sentiment toward
Facebook Inc. following its third-quarter results and comments from
its chief financial officer took the spotlight in tech-sector
trading on Thursday.
Facebook (FB) slipped by 2%, to $47.98 a share, which was in
contrast to the immediate upbeat reaction to the company's results
late Wednesday. While Facebook reported strong quarterly results,
many investors keyed in on comments made by Chief Financial Officer
David Ebersman regarding a decrease in daily users among younger
teenagers, and that the company doesn't expect to significantly
increase "the quality and relevance" of its Newsfeed ads in the
fourth quarter.
Carlos Kirjner, of Bernstein Research, said that Ebersman's
comments hint that Facebook my have to soon raise prices on its
ads.
"With user growth decelerating, Newsfeed ad load steady, and
multiple data-points suggesting that engagement in developed
markets is not growing significantly, revenue growth has to come
increasingly from rising price-per-ad," Kirjner said.
BMO Capital Markets analyst Daniel Solomon cut his rating on
Facebook's stock to market perform, or neutral, from outperform,
mostly due to what he called "the lack of visibility around
Facebook's opportunity in Social TV advertising."
Another notable decliner was networking equipment maker JDSU
(JDSUD), which was down almost 10%, at $13.38 after a short-sale
restriction was lifted on the stock. Late Wednesday, JDSU gave a
fiscal second-quarter revenue forecast that fell short of Wall
Street analysts estimates.
Losses also came from Apple Inc. (AAPL), Angie's List Inc.
(ANGI), Pandora Media Inc. (P) and Google Inc. (GOOG).
The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 12 points to 3,917, while the
Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) managed to edge into
positive territory.
Advancers included Yahoo Inc. (YHOO), Netflix Inc. (NFLX) and
Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ).
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