While workers for many major companies are returning to the office, Facebook heavyweights are bucking the trend.
Many major companies, including Alphabet (GOOGL) – Get Alphabet Inc. Class A Report, Twitter (TWTR) – Get Twitter, Inc. Report, Citigroup (C) – Get Citigroup Inc. Report and Bank of New York Mellon (BK) – Get Bank of New York Mellon Corporation Report, are bringing their workers back to the office this month.
But top Meta Platforms (FB) – Get Meta Platforms Inc. Class A Report (formerly Facebook) executives are moving in the opposite direction. They’re dispersing worldwide and working remotely, rather than spending all their time at Meta’s Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters, The Wall Street Journal reports.
The destinations include New York; Los Angeles; Cape Cod, Mass.; the U.K.; Israel and Europe.
Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg spends a lot of time in Hawaii and other homes he owns outside Silicon Valley, knowledgeable sources told The Journal.
To be sure, for the rest of the year, Zuckerberg plans to work remotely less than half the time, Meta spokesman Tracy Clayton told the paper.
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Some may question whether it’s wise for top management to spend more time away from Menlo Park, especially with Meta facing problems on a number of fronts.
Meta, of course, doesn’t see it as an issue. “We believe that how people work is far more important than where they work from,” Clayton told The Journal.
Facebook Stock Has Fallen. Is It Undervalued?
Meanwhile, after its 37% drop over the past six months, Meta shares trade at the level of a value stock, Bloomberg notes. From its initial public offering in 2012 until last year, Meta was among the top-performing growth stocks in the market.
But now the company’s forward price-earnings multiple stands at 16.4, according to Morningstar. That compares to 19.1 for the S&P 500 as of March 18, according to FactSet.
“It is striking that many people aren’t stepping in” to buy Meta’s stock, Jason Benowitz, a senior portfolio manager with Roosevelt Investment Group, told Bloomberg. “Right now it just feels like a black hole.”
Morningstar analyst Ali Mogharabi sees Meta’s selloff as way overdone, putting fair value at $400 and assigning the company a wide moat. Meta recently traded at $217.
“We believe Meta will continue to benefit from an increased allocation of marketing and advertising dollars toward online advertising, more specifically social network and video ads where Meta is especially well positioned,” Mogharabi wrote in a commentary last month.
“The firm’s Facebook app, along with Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp, is among the world’s most widely used apps on both Android and iPhone smartphones.”
