Facebook is going to submit an audit of its efforts to control hate speech
The shares of Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) are up 1.1% at $229.61 this morning after CEO Mark Zuckerberg agreed to meet with the organizers of the "Stop Hate for Profit" campaign. The campaign has resulted in a number of major companies withdrawing their advertisements from the social media site. Notable companies that have paused their ads for the month of July include Target (TGT), Starbucks (SBUX), and Pfizer (PFE). As the list continues to grow, Reuters reported that Facebook will collaborate with Media Rating Council, a non-profit that audits and accredits market research and audience rating services, in an effort to qualm its advertisers' concerns surrounding how the company has addressed hate speech on the site.
In early-June, Zuckerberg announced he would review Facebook's content policies in an effort to advance racial justice and voter engagement. In the time since, FB notched a new all-time high of $245.19 on June 23, before falling back to its current perch just above its month-to-date breakeven levels. After yesterday's close, Facebook stock managed to recapture its position above the 40-day moving average -- a trendline it pulled back below last week for the first time since early April.
In the options pits, meanwhile, puts have been unusually popular. This is per Facebook stock's 50-day put/call volume ratio of 0.48 at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX), which sits higher than 74% of reading from the past year.
Meanwhile, analysts are still extremely optimistic toward FB, evidenced by the 27 of 29 that call the stock a "buy" or better. Plus, the 12-month consensus target price of $246.17 is an 8.4% premium to current levels.