Facebook shares gain the most in a month on Wednesday, company opens up face recognition tech to all users

Facebook Inc (FB) said earlier this week that its face recognition technology would be made available to all of its users with an option to opt out. In addition, the “Tag Suggestions” feature has been discontinued.

Facebook shares closed higher for the sixth time in the past eleven trading sessions on NASDAQ on Wednesday. It has also been the sharpest daily surge since August 8th. The stock went up 2.60% ($4.75) to $187.14, after touching an intraday high at $187.76, or a price level not seen since August 13th ($191.38).

Shares of Facebook Inc have risen 42.76% so far in 2019 compared with a 17.19% gain for the benchmark index, S&P 500 (SPX).

In 2018, Facebook Inc’s stock went down 25.71%, thus, it underperformed the S&P 500, which registered a 6.24% loss.

The face recognition setting has been available to certain users since December 2017. The setting offers more functions such as informing Facebook account holders whether their profile photo is being used by another person.

Users opting in to the new setting will continue to view automatically generated tag suggestions, the social media company said.

Facebook also said that it would continue engagements with privacy experts, regulators, academics and users related to face recognition and its control options.

Analyst stock price forecast and recommendation

According to CNN Money, the 42 analysts, offering 12-month forecasts regarding Facebook Inc’s stock price, have a median target of $238.00, with a high estimate of $265.00 and a low estimate of $120.00. The median estimate represents a 27.18% upside compared to the closing price of $187.14 on September 4th.

The same media also reported that at least 36 out of 46 surveyed investment analysts had rated Facebook Inc’s stock as “Buy”, while 5 – as “Hold”. On the other hand, 1 analyst had recommended selling the stock.