Facebook (FB) PT Raised to 'Street High' $275 at BTIG on Instagram Growth and Fact that Users 'Could Not Care Less' About Privacy Worries

BTIG analyst Richard Greenfield raised his price target on Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) to $275.00 (from $175.00) while maintaining a Buy rating, saying Instagram is enabling the company to continue to grow mobile time spent. The new price target matches a 'Street High'.

"While regulators and the press have had a field day attacking Facebook's behavior, we continue to believe consumers simply could not care less - they love Facebook and all of its key services. In fact, we sense the shift toward more personal content on Facebook (vs. third-party publisher content) has notably improved the quality of the core Facebook experience," Greenfield commented.

Meanwhile, despite all the noise around Facebook, Instagram has become an absolute monster in terms of user growth and engagement (with Instagram now over 1 billion users per day and Instagram stories over 400 million). "We find it stunning that Instagram Stories in just two years since launch has become twice as large as Snapchat, link, with monetization still in the early innings."

The firm is raising 2018-2020 Growth:

• 2018: We are raising revenues to 57.3 billion, up 41% y-o-y vs. our prior estimate of $51.1 billion, up 32% (consensus is $56.7 billion), with organic ad revenue growth excluding currency now estimated at 38% vs. 48% in 2017. We are increasing our 2018 EBITDA estimate to $35.6 billion, up 32 % y-o-y vs. our prior estimate of $31.4 billion, up 30% (consensus is $34.6 billion).
• 2019: We are raising revenues to 75.7 billion, up 32 % y-o-y vs. our prior estimate of $63.4 billion, up 24%
• (consensus is $71.9 billion). We are increasing our 2019 EBITDA estimate to $45.2 billion, up 27% y-o-y vs. our prior estimate of $40 billion, up 27% (consensus is $42.9 billion).
• 2020: We are raising revenues to $95.4 billion, up 26% y-o-y vs. our prior estimate of $76 billion, up 20%
• (consensus is $87.5 billion). We are increasing our 2020 EBITDA estimate to $54.3 billion, up 20% y-o-y vs. our prior estimate of $49.4 billion, up 24% (consensus is $52.9 billion).

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