Facebook Inc drew tepid assessments from Wall Street's top analysts a month after its rocky stock market debut, as warnings about an uncertain business model and a difficult transition to mobile helped send its shares down 2.6 percent.
In more than a dozen highly anticipated reports, Morgan Stanley and other major brokerages that handled the blockbuster IPO said it remains unclear how Facebook plans to make money from a growing number of users logging onto the No. 1 social network via smartphones and tablets.
Most analysts expected Facebook's large user base to help it corner a substantial share of the Internet advertising market. But almost half of the ratings released on Wednesday were "hold" or the equivalent -- despite the shares trading sharply down from their $38 IPO price.
The reports, all from banks involved in the highly anticipated but poorly executed IPO, represent Wall Street's most broad-based assessment of Facebook, the first U.S. company to debut with a market value of more than $100 billion.
The 33 banks that participated in the stock listing were required by securities regulations to wait until 40 days after the first day of trading on May 18 before publishing their views, limiting the research on Facebook until... Source/Origin >> Read More
