Wall Street continues to weigh in on Facebook, but Cowen & Co. Analyst John Blackledge was not as optimistic about the social network as his counterpart at J.P. Morgan, Doug Anmuth, assigning the company a neutral rating.
Lisa Raphael (left), the social media producer at Katie Couric's daytime talk show Katie, is one of our featured speakers in Mediabistro's upcoming Social Media Marketing Boot Camp, an online event and workshop starting June 6, 2013. Lisa will share a case study on how the hit show uses Twitter to build interest and buzz around upcoming segments. Learn more about our our twelve event speakers and register here. 
Facebook got its first good news from Wall Street in 2013, as J.P. Morgan Analyst Doug Anmuth wrote in a research note that he was “incrementally positive” about the social network’s stock.
Facebook is tweaking its credit line due to a reduction in its potential tax liability, halving the total to $1.5 billion from $3 billion, but extending its term to three years from one year, according to reports.
The bad news related to Facebook stock continues to roll in, with analysts for two of the social network’s largest underwriters, Morgan Stanley and J.P. Morgan, lowering their price targets, according to reports.
Nasdaq exchange parent Nasdaq OMX Group and investors that are suing the company filed papers with the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multi-District Litigation in Manhattan Monday asking that their lawsuits be kept separate from the dozens of suits by Facebook shareholders against the social network due to its bungled initial public offering, Reuters reported.
Facebook will reportedly file a motion, as early as Friday, to consolidate all of the lawsuits against the company related to its troubled initial public offering, and the motion is expected to include lead underwriters Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and J.P. Morgan.
One of the many court cases involving Facebook’s troubled initial public offering was dismissed Wednesday, as a U.S. District Court in Texas ruled that sufficient grounds were not presented to file a lawsuit.
A total of 38.5 percent of the 421,233,615 Facebook shares purchased by underwriters prior to its initial public offering went to Morgan Stanley, while E*Trade, which had been touted as the best source of stock in the social network for individual investors, received only 0.05 percent of the shares, according to an amendment to Facebook’s S-1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, filed after the close of trading Friday.
Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, and Citigroup will likely join the group of banks underwriting Facebook’s upcoming initial public offering.
