Thursday 31 May 2012

Facebook’s Zuckerberg drops off top billionaires list

Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg’s personal wealth has taken a hit, knocking him off the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which ranks the top 40 billionaires in the world.
Since his company went public on May 18, the social network co-founder’s personal wealth on paper has dropped to $14.7 billion from $16.2 billion, Bloomberg reported after the company’s shares fell nearly 10 percent in Tuesday trading. The stock closed Tuesday at $28.84, and was trading slightly up Wednesday morning at $29.33.
It was the first time that Facebook shares had fallen below $30. The initial public offering earlier this month, one of the largest in U.S. history, is now also one of the worst-performing, having lost over 20 percent of its value in seven trading days.
Zuckerberg’s wealth is now $800 million below the last person on the list, Colombian banker Luis Carlos Sarmiento.
Trading at $29 per share, Facebook’s price-earnings, or p/e, ratio is high, at about 62.9 — and investors don’t see justification for paying such a high price for such a small return.
According to Bloomberg’s data, the stock price would have to drop to $23.07 to have the same average p/e ratio as other technology companies on the Nasdaq index, based on estimated earnings in the next 12 months. For example, midday Tuesday, Google’s p/e was significantly lower at 17.7, and Apple’s was at 13.9.

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