Facebook shares close lower on Friday, up to 6.8 million users may have been affected by a bug, company says

A bug has been discovered, which may have affected up to 6.8 million users who input their Facebook login credentials in order to permit third-party applications to gain access to photos, Facebook Inc (FB) said last week.

Facebook shares closed lower for the third time in the past twelve trading sessions on NASDAQ on Friday. The stock went down 0.66% ($0.95) to $144.06, after touching an intraday low at $142.51, or a price level not seen since December 12th ($142.51).

Shares of Facebook Inc have retreated 18.36% so far in 2018 compared with a 2.76% drop for the benchmark index, S&P 500 (SPX).

In 2017, Facebook’s stock surged 53.38%, thus, it outperformed the S&P 500, which registered a 19.42% return.

According to Facebooks statement, some third-party applications may have accessed a wider set of user photos than usual during the period between September 13th and September 25th.

In a blog post, Facebook also said that it had fixed the issue, which might have affected up to 1 500 applications provided by 876 developers.

This is the latest privacy issue, which Facebook Inc disclosed in 2018, following the Cambridge Analytica data scandal in April and the data breach of almost 30 million accounts two months ago.

According to CNN Money, the 45 analysts, offering 12-month forecasts regarding Facebook Inc’s stock price, have a median target of $190.00, with a high estimate of $275.00 and a low estimate of $125.00. The median estimate represents a 31.89% upside compared to the closing price of $144.06 on December 14th.

The same media also reported that 34 out of 49 surveyed investment analysts had rated Facebook Inc’s stock as “Buy”, while 8 – as “Hold”. On the other hand, 1 analyst had recommended selling the stock.

Weekly Pivot Levels

By using the traditional method of calculation, the weekly levels of importance for Facebook Inc (FB) are presented as follows:

Central Pivot Point – $143.42
R1 – $147.83
R2 – $151.60
R3 – $156.01
R4 – $160.42

S1 – $139.65
S2 – $135.24
S3 – $131.47
S4 – $127.70