After last week’s disaster, Facebook (NASDAQ) rose slightly by more than 2 percent yesterday. Facebook may have taken it to the bank, but it is still worth considering investing in. Anyone who wanted to purchase Facebook shares is encouraged by the current price. Facebook is a company that I am mildly bullish.

Facebook stock is trending up for the majority of 2015 so far. Recent days have seen it reverse course a little, possibly in search of a higher standard price. It closed at $245.64 per share on January 14. This was its lowest adjusted closing price. Since then it has been trending upwards with small fluctuations. The stock closed at the highest adjusted price of the year on September 7. It was $382.18. However, after September 7, the stock began to trend downward and retraced back to May levels.

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Facebook’s yesterday was truly a tough day. This contributed to the overall downtrend. A report on “60 Minutes” Sunday night, featuring a former Facebook employee turned whistleblower, certainly didn’t help matters. Frances Haugen was the Sunday night’s report and she explained how Facebook knew of the difficulties it faced. Reports note that Instagram’s impact on teenager girls was very strong. Haugen was then called to testify before the Senate yesterday in order to continue discussing this matter.

It’s enough to be a senator investigating you is bad news. You can make it worse by having it happen immediately after a six hour outage. Marketwatch reported that $164,000 in lost revenue per minute was the cost of the outage to the company. This was roughly $40 billion of its market capital, or $6 billion for Mark Zuckerberg.

Wall Street Take

However, Wall Street consensus analysts consider Facebook to be a strong buy. All 31 analysts have provided 12-month target price estimates for Facebook in the last 3 months. Fully 25 of them call Facebook Buy. Five others, however, are more conservative and call it a Hold. Only one Sell is represented by the last remaining holdout. Since October last year, Facebook has been rated a Strong Buy.

Facebook’s average price target is a wide range. The difference between the high and low targets can be seen at $200. With a target high of $500, and low at $300 respectively, the current average price target for Facebook shares is $419.87. Facebook’s last traded price was $332.96. This represents a potential upside of 22.1%.

It’s still one of the best at what it does

Facebook can be difficult to remain bearish in the short-term. It’s not the only social media platform, but it is the one that has been there for the longest time. This is particularly true since MySpace, which was defunct in 2010, has been culturally irrelevant. Facebook remains a vital component of many companies’ marketing efforts to this day.

This is especially true for small businesses. How many pizzerias don’t have Facebook menus? For mom-and pop restaurants and flower shops alike, Facebook is a great place to find hours and products. Facebook lost a lot ground among younger users due to SnapChat (SNAP), TikTok or a multitude of other apps. But it is still used widely by Gen X, as well as older millennials. This puts it in an excellent position at the moment.

Facebook might never be able regain its status as a top-rated app among young users. However, its status among older users should provide it with some leverage moving forward.

Concluding views

Facebook continues to have a significant user base, with monthly active users growing steadily every month since 2008. Statista research also indicates that it is the world’s largest social media company. Facebook boasts a large audience, and it has found multiple ways to make money from this.

Facebook, as it stands now, will remain a very popular feature of the Internet. The internet is appealing to a large population right now, and they will likely continue using it until the day it ceases to exist. This guarantees a solid business line for the next 20-30 years, except for any major catastrophe, which seems unlikely. It might also be able to recapture youth markets and gain a competitive edge with a single new innovation.

Facebook’s time has come to an end for rapid growth. Facebook’s lack of dividend does not make it an attractive income stock. Facebook is a good option for those looking to make a secure investment that will appreciate slowly over many years.

Disclosure: Steve Anderson had no position in any securities at the time this article was published.

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