Facebook’s Stock Has Suffered, but Some Investors See Long-Term Value

The following is an excerpt from an article in 

The New York Times
Monday, August 13, 2012

Facebook’s Stock Has Suffered, but Some Investors See Long-Term Value

By SOMINI SENGUPTA

SAN FRANCISCO — The Facebook spring is over. The dog days of August have taken hold.

In May, when investors tripped over themselves to buy a piece of Facebook, not even the skeptics predicted what has happened. Three months after the offering, shares have lost more than 40 percent of their value, closing at just under $21.81 on Friday, from $38 on May 18.

The stock began to dip immediately after its debut on the public markets, and at first technical errors with the offering were blamed. But these problems did not account for the stock’s subsequent plunge, analysts and shareholders say. That decline, they say, can be traced to several factors, among them the sheer size and price of the initial offering, early exits by major investors and slowing growth.

Not least, the stock seems to have been jinxed by Facebook’s own fairy tale.

“The underwriters (and the media) did a great job of hyping Facebook leading up to the I.P.O., and the sell-side (including me) did a great job of hyping it after,” Michael Pachter with Wedbush Securities, an equity research firm, wrote in an e-mail.

Still, some investors remain bullish. Facebook is profitable, it keeps its nearly one billion users glued to their screens longer than any other Internet site, and it is aggressively experimenting with new ways to drum up advertising — its main source of revenue. Just this month, for instance, it began offering application developers a way to focus ads, and sought to diversify revenue by opening its site in Britain to online gambling.

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News Release from Wells Fargo - HSAs

News Release

Health Saving Accounts on the Rise; Wells Fargo Health Benefit Services Posts Record Results in 2011
Average balances increased in 2011 as more companies utilize HSAs for their employees

SAN FRANCISCO — March 7, 2012

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) today announced record growth of more than 100,000 new health savings accounts (HSAs) in 2011, representing 38 percent year-over-year growth. The company also reported a 22 percent increase in assets under the HSA program, which is offered through its Health Benefit Services group.

“We continue to see an increase in adoption as more of our customers take advantage of the long-term tax and retirement benefits of HSAs,” said Elizabeth Ryan, head of Wells Fargo Health Benefit Services. “Wells Fargo is committed to educating our customers – including corporate, small business and individual clients – on how HSAs can help people prepare for retirement and make smarter health care-spending decisions.”

Today, more than 320,000 individuals and 10,000 companies nationwide use Wells Fargo HSAs. In 2011, Wells Fargo business clients with HSA programs contributed more than 27 percent of total HSA contributions to their employees’ accounts, helping those businesses save an estimated $10 million in payroll taxes. As the average account balance increased by 10 percent to more than $2,500 (for accounts with a balance), account holders also saved an estimated $90 million in taxes last year. With more account holders taking advantage of the opportunity to invest in mutual funds through their Wells Fargo HSAs, total investment balances increased by 27 percent since last year.

Account-based health plans have surpassed $12.4 billion in assets in more than 8.4 million accounts nationwide, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute (2012). More than 20 percent of employers offering health benefits now have this plan option, according to Mercer’s annual National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans (2011).