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How to buy into facebook stock


How to Buy Facebook (META) Stock

Have you ever wondered how to buy Facebook stock? Whether you’re psyched for the Metaverse or just want to invest in the biggest social media platform, buying stock in Meta (Facebook’s parent company) could be for you. Let’s break down how to buy Facebook stock into six simple steps, starting with whether it’s a good idea to buy Facebook stock in the first place. You can also work with a financial advisor to help you manage your overall portfolio, including investing in specific stocks.

1. Determine If You Want to Buy Facebook Stock

Meta, or Facebook, stock may fit into your investment plan, but it’s important to weigh how it aligns with your goals. As with any singular stock, it’s prone to fluctuate, so having a diverse portfolio is necessary to protect against risk. Remember, a low share now doesn’t necessarily mean this is a bad buy. You could be getting in at a low price if there’s future growth.

It pays to do some stock analysis before sinking money into Meta. Look at the performance of the tech sector as a whole, see the returns of Facebook’s competitors and analyze Facebook’s earnings reports. Consider businesses that affect Facebook’s earnings. For instance, Apple has put in place many privacy protections that are having a big impact on Facebook’s ad revenue.

You may feel a little intimidated by the process of analyzing the stock, but remember that knowledge is power. You don’t want to invest your hard-earned money into a company whose business you don’t understand. If you’d rather not do the analysis, it may be a better option to put your money into a mutual fund or index fund.

However, if you do want to dig into the particulars, having a brokerage account can help.

2. Find a Brokerage and Open an Account

A brokerage account is necessary to invest in Facebook stock. Different brokerages specialize in different areas. Some focus on more sophisticated investors, while others bring new investors in with easy-to-use dashboards or a great phone app.

Still, most major brokerages offer many educational materials, as well as ways to visualize and plot stock performance. To get started choosing a brokerage, read our article on the best brokerage accounts.

3. Put Money into the Brokerage Account

To buy Facebook stock, you will need cash in your brokerage account. You can do this by connecting your bank account to your brokerage and transferring your money over. Some brokers allow other means of transfer, like through your debit card or an account with a service like PayPal. Once you have money in your account, it’s time to decide how much Facebook stock you’ll buy.

4. Decide How Much to Invest in Facebook

As of writing this in November 2022, Meta is currently trading at $90.54 per share. At the start of 2022, it was trading above $300/share. You could buy multiple shares or you could start small by buying fractional shares. What you need to decide is how Facebook fits into both your budget and your investment portfolio.

For a diverse portfolio, you generally want only 5 – 10% of it made up of individual business stocks. For instance, if you have a portfolio of $50,000, $2,500 – $5,000 of that should go to individual stocks. From there you’ll need to decide how much of that you want to devote to Facebook. Consider what other investments you have, like if you already have money in tech-sector-oriented funds.

5. Choose Your Order Type and Buy Stock

The final step in how to buy Facebook stock is deciding your order type in your brokerage account. There are two types of ways to buy or sell a stock, also known as orders: market orders and limit orders. Here’s a brief overview of each:

  • Market orders:  This set of transaction orders is used to buy or sell a stock immediately. You outline the stock to trade (in this case, Meta), how many shares and whether you’re buying or selling. The transaction will then be made speedily at market price.
  • Limit Orders: A limit order sets a limit to how much you will buy or sell a stock for. For instance, you could set a limit order to buy 30 shares of Meta at $85 or less. You can use a limit order to wait to buy the stock until it hits the price you want.

6. Evaluate Facebook’s Performance

Once you’ve bought stock in Meta, you need to regularly assess the company’s performance. Check in and make note of where the stock price has been and where it could be headed. Read earnings statements and determine whether you have trust in the company’s vision.

For instance, if Meta’s moving away from Facebook and into the business of selling VR hardware for the Metaverse, is that something you want to be part of or do you perceive too much risk? Regular evaluation of your stance on the company’s business and financials is crucial to keeping your investment aligned with your goals.

The Bottom Line

Investing in any singular company comes with the risk of volatility. Facebook is no different. To invest, you’ll need to choose a brokerage and set up an account. It’s important to evaluate your stance on Facebook every 3 – 6 months. Determine if the company’s earnings and business decisions align with your goals. Be aware of changes in the tech sector, the health of the market as a whole, as well as the other investments you have that could mitigate the risk of your investment in Facebook.

Investing Tips for Beginners
  • A financial advisor can help you create a long-term investment plan to grow your assets. Finding the right financial advisor doesn’t have to be hard. SmartAsset’s free tool matches you with up to three financial advisors who serve your area, and you can interview your advisor matches at no cost to decide which one is right for you. If you’re ready to find an advisor who can help you achieve your financial goals, get started now.
  • When analyzing your investments, make sure your assets are properly allocated so you can meet your investment goals. You want to strike a balance between growth and risk. Use SmartAsset’s free asset allocation calculator to determine where your money should be invested depending on your risk profile.

Photo credit: ©iStock.com/Tero Vesalainen, ©iStock.com/reklamlar, ©iStock.com/Urupong

How To Buy Facebook Stock (META) – Forbes Advisor

Updated: Jul 26, 2022, 7:59am

Editorial Note: We earn a commission from partner links on Forbes Advisor. Commissions do not affect our editors' opinions or evaluations.

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With nearly two billion daily active users on its platform and nearly $120 billion in annual sales, Facebook is a global phenomenon and a revenue-generating juggernaut. The company has recently rebranded as Meta Platforms, Inc. If you’re interested in adding some Meta stock to your portfolio, here’s how to get started.

How to Buy Facebook Stock (META)

1.  Open a Brokerage Account

If you’re looking to buy Facebook or any other stock, you need a brokerage account to handle the transactions. Available services, fees and investment options differ from one broker to the next, so it’s smart to shop around to find one that fits your preferences. Check out our listing of the best online brokers to get started.

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2.  Choose an Account to Match Your Goals

After you settle on the right brokerage platform, decide what kind of account you need. Your choice of account should match your investing goals.

  • Retirement accounts. Individual retirement accounts (IRAs) give you tax advantages when you save for retirement. IRAs come with one big limitation: If you withdraw money before you are at least 59 ½, you’ll owe a 10% penalty, plus any applicable taxes.
  • Taxable accounts. While taxable brokerage accounts don’t offer any special tax benefits, you can withdraw funds at any time, for any reason. This gives you flexibility when it comes to building general purpose wealth.

3.  Decide How Much to Invest in Facebook

When buying individual stocks, there are a few factors you should take into consideration. To determine how much money to invest in Facebook, make sure you ask yourself the following questions:

  • What’s your budget? Before buying a stake in Facebook, consider your other budget items. After you’ve paid the bills, make sure you’re saving enough for retirement and that you have a solid emergency fund.
  • What’s FB’s current price? Like all stocks, shares of Facebook fluctuate in price constantly. You can certainly buy a single share of FB, but consider that you could also purchase a part of a share, known as a fractional share. Brokerages like Charles Schwab, Fidelity, Stash and Robinhood allow investors to purchase fractional shares.
  • What’s your investing strategy? You may choose to make a single purchase of Facebook all at once or you can use dollar cost averaging by purchasing the same dollar amount of the stock at regular intervals, no matter what the stock costs at the time. Dollar-cost-averaging can help reduce your risk of volatility and save you money on the cost-per-share over time.
  • What about your other investments? How does FB fit into your overall investment strategy? Do you own a lot of other large-cap technology stocks, or will Facebook be your first investment in this sector? Making sure you have a diversified portfolio that represents several different industries and company sizes can help ensure a healthy portfolio.

4.  Determine Your Order Type and Place Your Order

You can request that your brokerage purchase shares of Facebook stock at the current price or use a more advanced order type, like limit orders or stop orders. These types of orders only purchase shares once the stock price falls below a certain threshold.

Facebook is traded on the Nasdaq stock exchange, and its shares can be bought or sold between 9:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. ET, Monday through Friday. If your brokerage platform offers the option, the Nasdaq allows pre-market and after-market trading.

Nasdaq’s pre-market trading hours are 4:00 a.m. until 9:30 a.m., and its after-hours trading runs from 4:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. ET. ​​If you place an order outside of the hours your brokerage allows you to trade during, it will be processed once trading resumes.

5.  Evaluate Meta’s Performance

Once you own Meta stock, you should periodically review your investment and its performance.

To evaluate the performance of any stock, start by reviewing the annualized percent return. This will give you a number you can compare to other assets as you gauge how well your investment in META has performed.

Compare Facebook’s performance to benchmark indexes such as the Nasdaq 100 or the S&P 500. This shows you how Facebook has been doing in comparison to the stock market in aggregate.

Since Facebook is publicly traded, it is required to file both Form 10-K annual reports and Form 10-Q quarterly reports to disclose its performance and finances.

Facebook provides this information on its investor relations site, and it can also be found on the SEC database. If looking through these reports feels like you’re trying to read a foreign language, try reading expert analysis of these reports from sites like Morningstar. The information disclosed by Facebook plus the expert analyses you read can help you determine if this is the right stock for your investing needs.

How to Sell Meta Shares

“Buy-and-hold” could be your best investing strategy, but eventually you may want to sell your shares of Facebook. Selling stock works much the same way as buying shares.

Open your online brokerage platform, then enter the Facebook ticker symbol, the number of shares or dollar value of what you want to sell and choose a sell order type. They work more or less the same way as the purchase order types we covered above.

If you’ve made a profit on your investment in Facebook, you may owe capital gains taxes. The amount you owe depends on your annual income and how long you’ve held your Facebook stock. Partnering with a tax professional or certified public accountant (CPA) can help you determine how capital gains taxes may affect the sale of your META stock or other investments.

Invest in Facebook with an ETF or an Index Fund

Buying shares of Meta Platforms is just one way of adding the company to your portfolio. You can also invest in Facebook by purchasing shares of index funds or exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Both are available through your online brokerage.

These kinds of funds pool large numbers of stocks together in a single fund, making them less risky than individual stocks. Rather than counting on Facebook alone, with funds you can diversify your holdings across hundreds (or even thousands) of different companies, increasing the chances of overall growth without betting on a single company.

It’s also important to note that Facebook is a major component of many index funds. For instance, it’s on the top 10 list of companies by index weight in the S&P 500, which means that buying an S&P 500 index fund will give you a good amount of exposure to META while still diversifying and protecting your investments.

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Shares Meta Platforms, Facebook (FB) - Investing.com

Prev. close
116.15

Dn. Range
118.82-123.31

income
118,12b

Opening
120.23

52 weeks
88.09-352.71 9000 9000
10.61

Volume cap. nine0005
313.17b

Dividends

N/A

(N/A)

Average volume (3m)
45.426.349 9000

11,00

Beta
1.14

Change per year
-64. 22%

Circulations
2.622.197.012

The following report
31 Jan 2023

What is your outlook on Meta Platforms? nine0008

The market is currently closed. Voting will be available during trading hours.

Information about META Platforms Inc

industry

Interactive communication systems and services

Sector

Services

employees

87314

9000 9000 META Platforms Inco develops technologies that help people find communities and grow businesses. The Company's products enable people to connect and share with friends and family using mobile devices, personal computers, virtual reality (VR) headsets, wearables and home devices. The company operates in two segments: Application Families and Reality Labs. The application family includes Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp and other services. Reality Labs includes consumer hardware, software, and content related to augmented and virtual reality. Facebook allows people to connect, share, discover and connect with each other on mobile devices and personal computers. Instagram is a place where people can express themselves through photos, videos, and private messages, as well as connect with and shop with their favorite businesses and creators. Messenger is a messaging app that allows people to communicate with friends, family, groups and companies across platforms and devices. nine0008

Details

Analyst Target Price

Average 154.30 (+29.20% Growth)
Max. 392.00
Min. 80.00
Price 119.43
Analysts 49

Actively sell

008

Buy

Analyst 12-month target price

Facebook stock quotes, chart and price dynamics

Facebook is one of the five most visited sites in the world. Using the social network for business and entertainment, you can not only generate income for this company, but also earn on its shares. Now they can be bought on the American exchange Nasdaq or in the form of contracts for difference in prices.

Facebook shares debuted on the stock market at $42.05 in May 2012. In the first months after the listing, the price of securities fell, setting an all-time low at $17.55 (October 2012). nine0008

Facebook stock has since moved into an uptrend. In July 2018, they reached $218.62 per unit, after which they moved to a downward correction. In December 2018, quotes were at $128.56 per security and returned to growth. However, the first attempt to overcome the previous maximum was not successful, and in February 2020, having reached the price of $218.77, the quotes fell against the background of the pandemic.

The next rise in led the price to update the highs of 2018. In September 2020, the value of $304.67 per unit was reached. nine0008

Today the growth of securities continues. In April 2021, the all-time high was updated and set at $333.81. We will consider the goals for subsequent strengthening below, making a forecast based on technical analysis.

Content:

  • Company Profile Facebook
  • What affects the value of Facebook shares
  • How to buy Facebook shares on the stock exchange
  • Prospects and risks when buying Facebook shares

Brief information about the company Facebook

nine0133
Name Data
Full name Facebook Inc
Ticker FB
Industry information and high technology
Founded 2004
Founder Mark Zuckerberg
Main trading floors Nasdaq
Registration number 30303M102
ISIN code US30303M1027
Capitalization 612 659. 17 million USD
Share par value $0.00
Liquidity level high

What affects the value of Facebook shares

Facebook shares depend on corporate income and global factors influencing the stock market. Common factors include:

  • The situation in the world economy. The coronavirus pandemic has brought down Facebook's share price for a short time amid panic sales of high-risk assets and the flight of investors into the dollar and gold. A period of economic recovery allows securities to rise.
  • Stock prices are now being affected by inflationary fears: the technology sector is under pressure in anticipation of an earlier tightening of the US Federal Reserve's monetary policy. nine0295

Focusing on what is happening in the corporation itself, it is worth noting the following factors on which the price of Facebook shares depends.

  1. Advertising revenue. The social network makes a profit on advertising, and the higher it is, the more quotes grow. Apple's privacy policy could result in users being able to control the flow of ads on their devices, which could impact Facebook's revenue and put pressure on quotes.
  2. Dynamics of the number of users. Especially active, since the social network receives the most income from them.
  3. Additional services and products that the corporation can monetize, indirectly or directly, are likely to boost the stock.
  4. Securities react most sensitively to Facebook's quarterly reports. If they turn out to be better than the consensus forecasts, the papers grow, if they are lower, they fall.

How to buy Facebook shares on the stock exchange

Now individuals can freely buy Facebook shares, having a brokerage account and access to one of the platforms where securities are traded.

Since Facebook shares on the Nasdaq can be purchased through stock brokers without being a US resident, you will have to go through a complicated account opening procedure.

There is an easier way - not to trade the shares themselves, but CFD contracts for them. This is a speculative tool that allows you to earn on both rising and falling prices. Works best for intraday strategies and swing trading tactics. nine0008

To buy Facebook shares, you need:

  1. Choose a brokerage company. For long-term investment, you need a firm that gives access to the US stock exchange, and for speculative high-yield tactics, it is better to open an account with a forex broker.
  2. Open a trading account with conditions suitable for the chosen strategy. Pay attention to the type and size of spreads, commissions, a list of other trading instruments.
  3. Deposit your starting capital to the account.
  4. Get a trading platform from a broker. Often forex brokers work through Metatrader 4 or 5, a simple and convenient platform that is available for free.
  5. Analyze the stock chart in accordance with the chosen trading strategy. To do this, you need to develop it yourself, take it ready on the Internet or seek help from a financial consultant.
  6. It is necessary to open deals only on the signal of the trading system. This will avoid risks and increase profits from the purchase of an asset. nine0295

Prospects and risks when buying shares of Facebook

The question of whether to buy shares of Zuckerberg's company and how long they will grow, must be taken on the basis of technical analysis. Assessing the fundamentals is important, but the best price to enter is on the Facebook stock chart.

To make a forecast for Facebook stock, you need to decide how long-term the buying strategy will be. It is necessary to start the analysis of the chart from the highest timeframe, gradually descending to the one on which the trade will be conducted. In the long-term and medium-term assessment, it is sufficient to analyze the monthly and weekly time interval. And for intraday trading, you need to go down to the hourly chart, or even lower. nine0008

  • For the medium-term timeframe, consider the monthly chart. The key support and resistance levels there will be horizontal 149.57, intermediate mirror level 219.64, resistance 332.82.

Monthly chart

  1. Two intermediate levels are additionally visible on the weekly timeframe – 243.79 and 278.63.

Weekly

  1. Facebook stock is now cautiously rebounding down from resistance at 332.82. If it is not possible to overcome it, the target for a downward correction will be the nearest support at 278.63. nine0198
  2. An alternative scenario in case of a favorable news background will be a breakdown of the resistance at 332.

    Learn more