Facebook now worth more than Wal-Mart on stock market

November 16, 2024

World - Business

Facebook now worth more than Wal-Mart on stock market

June 28, 2015

Facebook is now bigger than Wal-Mart, at least when it comes to its value on the stock market. The world’s biggest online social network knocked the world’s largest retailer out of the top 10 list of the highest-valued companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index on Monday and the gap widened on Tuesday. While the switch is mostly symbolic nothing specific happened this week to warrant it, and the difference between the two giants is not that big it signals investors’ insatiable appetite for successful tech stocks. Apple, Microsoft and Google top the list of the highest-valued companies in the US, and Facebook looks to be on its way to joining them.

A company’s market value is calculated by multiplying the number of shares of stock it has in circulation by the current price of one share. Facebook Inc was valued at USD 238 billion at the close of trading yesterday, according to FactSet. Its stock gained USD 3.14, or 3.7 per cent, at USD 87.88. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. was valued at USD 234 billion. Its stock dipped 22 cents to USD 72.57. Facebook, which is based in Menlo Park, California, has been on a roll this past year, its shares up about 34 per cent in the past year compared with just 8.2 per cent for the S&P 500 index. Its quarterly results have consistently surpassed expectations.

In the first three months of this year, Facebook’s total revenue of USD 3.54 billion amounted to just a little more than Wal-Mart’s total profit for its fiscal first quarter of USD 3.34 billion. But while Facebook saw revenue grow 42 per cent in the same period, Wal-Mart’s declined slightly.