UPDATE: Tigress Financial Upgrades Facebook

Courtesy of Benzinga.

Tigress Financial Partners upgraded Facebook Inc (NASDAQ: FB) from Neutral to Buy in a report issued Friday.

Analyst Ivan Feinseth noted that "Facebook delivered impressive 3Q results; total revenue and mobile advertising sales grew 59 percent to $3.2 billion and 121 percent to $1.9 billion Y/Y respectively."

Critical to the upgrade was evidence that Facebook can monetize Instagram and WhatsApp. Feinseth commented that these "concerns have largely been allayed as commentary on the conference call regarding Instagram was more in depth, giving us insight into Facebook’s plans for the platform.

"Also contributing to our increasing confidence in FB’s ability to monetize Instagram are our own observations; we are noticing more advertising on the platform and, despite concerns that ads on the feed would be intrusive and off-putting, in our experience they have been seamless and unobtrusive."

Tigress joins other firms that feel Facebook is on the right track for long-term growth.

The report concluded with the belief that "the strong user metrics the company reported, notably the DAU/MAU reaching an all-time high of 64 percent, should diminish any fears about whether or not teens are using the platform. We see increasing engagement from baby boomers and older generations of users and believe these demographics [are] under-appreciated given their greater discretionary income than younger generations."

Facebook Inc recently traded at $74.80, up 0.9 percent.

Posted-In: Ivan Feinseth Tigress Financial PartnersAnalyst Color Upgrades Analyst Ratings