# Are you buying shares in Facebook? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 17, 2012, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-buying-shares-in-facebook/622222 "2012-05-17T16:28:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![sachertorte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sachertorte/32/3727_2.png) [@sachertorte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sachertorte)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2012, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-buying-shares-in-facebook/622222/41 "2012-05-22T18:52:46Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Facebook: > > Earnings: $1 billion. > Initial Valuation: $100 billion > > Price to Earnings Ratio: 100x > > To give you a few other examples (in whole numbers); > > GE 16x > Google 14x > Apple 13x > Walmart 13x > > Need I go on? Well, to be fair you should at least include [Amazon.com](http://Amazon.com) which is trading at 178x earnings. Holy Shit! Why is Amazon trading at 178 times earnings? ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2012, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-buying-shares-in-facebook/622222/42 "2012-05-22T19:25:37Z")
> [@sachertorte](#): > > Well, to be fair you should at least include [Amazon.com](http://Amazon.com) which is trading at 178x earnings. > Holy Shit! Why is Amazon trading at 178 times earnings? Never underestimate the stupidity of the investing public. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-buying-shares-in-facebook/622222/43 "2012-05-23T00:13:11Z")
I bought 110 shares of FB @ $38. I can afford to wait it out. It may do well eventually. I bought LinkedIn a few months ago and it tanked for a while, but it’s doing nicely now. I may be old, but I’ve got some time. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-buying-shares-in-facebook/622222/44 "2012-05-23T00:18:03Z")
I bought 4 shares @ $33, just for the hell of it. That’s about as much of a risk I’m willing to take on FB. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-buying-shares-in-facebook/622222/45 "2012-05-23T00:57:28Z")
> [@sachertorte](#): > > Well, to be fair you should at least include [Amazon.com](http://Amazon.com) which is trading at 178x earnings. > Holy Shit! Why is Amazon trading at 178 times earnings? Because people are betting that when the retail dust settles - Amazon will be sitting on a lot more earnings and Best Buy, Barnes and Noble, Famous Footwear, half of Targets business, will have moved over. There is a lot of money left in Brick and Mortar retail, and ten years ago, there will be less there and more online. And because Amazon is quietly but successful moving into the hosted services business - and doing it pretty well. I bought 15 shares of FB like Rand, and bought them when they’d dropped 12%. I figure that in ten years I’ll either have lost all of $600 (which we’ve been known to spend on a few bottles of wine) or I’ll have tripled it. Most of my portfolio is invested more responsibly, but I have a few wild hair stocks. And like Lavendarblue - my non-techie mother uses Facebook, I suspect that their ad revenue will get better, and I suspect that microtransactions for them are going to be huge. ---
**Author:** ![Illuminatiprimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/illuminatiprimus/32/11520_2.png) [@Illuminatiprimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Illuminatiprimus)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-buying-shares-in-facebook/622222/46 "2012-05-23T10:25:08Z")
> [@Rigamarole](#): > > Where’s the “fuck no” option? This is, word for word, what I came in here to post. ---
**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-buying-shares-in-facebook/622222/47 "2012-05-25T22:07:05Z")
> [@fifty-six](#): > > There was a lot of shares sold at the 38 mark yesterday. FB had severe downward momentum. I am going with > > 29.50 We were both close, it ended at: $31.91 ---
**Author:** ![kelly5078](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6f9a4e/32.png) [@kelly5078](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kelly5078)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-buying-shares-in-facebook/622222/48 "2012-05-25T22:14:34Z")
I buy no-load mutual funds. I don’t mess with individual stocks. Too much business risk. ---
**Author:** ![Sicks\_Ate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Sicks\_Ate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sicks_Ate)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2012, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-buying-shares-in-facebook/622222/49 "2012-05-31T20:22:29Z")
> [@DrumBum](#): > > I voted “No” but a more accurate choice would have been “Not now.” I will watch it and might be interested if/when it gets to $15. I wanted to ask something along these lines; at what price might it be a good idea to grab some? Not that I will, but it seems like there is a point where it would be a bargain that will only go up? ---
**Author:** ![fifty-six](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@fifty-six](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fifty-six)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2012, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-buying-shares-in-facebook/622222/50 "2012-05-31T22:04:18Z")
> [@RaftPeople](#): > > We were both close, it ended at: $31.91 Great work. It would be fun if The Dope had a investing club. Even if it was with theoretical money. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-buying-shares-in-facebook/622222.md?page=2)