Merrill Lynch Makes Huge Social Media Addition to US 1 List

In a new research report, the analysts at Merrill Lynch make changes to the company’s prestigious US 1 stocks list and add two top new stocks to buy. This time they are going for the long ball as they add the premier social media stock currently trading today, a company that has grown so fast its market cap now exceeds some of the biggest companies out there.

Facebook

This incredible, fast-growing company remains the face of social media and is the newest addition to the Merrill Lynch US 1 list. Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) has been grinding higher over the past year after a big run up in 2013 to early 2014, when the stock almost doubled. And the social media behemoth doesn’t look to be slowing down as analysts across Wall Street continue to recommend the stock and have been moving price targets higher.

The Merrill Lynch team feels that, overall, investors will continue to migrate to what they call “high-quality” growth stocks, perhaps beginning to eschew momentum darlings that are probably way overpriced. The analysts point to the fact that the company has easy second-quarter comparisons to last year for this quarter, and through the rest of 2015.

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With Instagram, Premium video and Graph Search capabilities, some analysts feel that the company can drive revenue growth even without a huge increase in advertising placement. The Merrill Lynch team thinks that, with the easy comps versus last year stabilizing and even reaccelerating, ad revenue growth is very possible. It has been reported that Instagram is opening its platform for advertisers, particularly direct response advertisers via new direct response ad units like mobile app install ads. With a talented and experienced sales team, this should only continue to drive revenue higher.

Facebook also recently announced a willingness to share ad revenue to acquire premium content, a totally new avenue for the company. It hopes to draw content away from Google’s YouTube. Facebook will offer contributors 55% of the revenue from ads that appear alongside videos, the same split as YouTube. The spots will be part of a new feature that suggests clips to Facebook users who are already watching videos. This is yet another step forward for the company as they build a hedge to the social media train that at some point may hit critical mass.

With all the outstanding growth avenues, the analysts at Merrill Lynch remain positive on usage share gains, the multitude of revenue levers and silos the company currently has and is adding, and the very attractive price-to-earnings to growth valuation versus the company’s social media peers. The bottom line is Facebook is the 800-pound gorilla in the room, with little if any competition, especially in its specific format.

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The Merrill Lynch price target for the stock is $105. The Thomson/First Call consensus target is $98.53, close to where the shares closed Tuesday, at $98.39.

Zoetis

This company is also added to the US 1 list, and it focuses on the discovery, development, manufacture and commercialization of animal health medicines and vaccines for livestock and companion animals worldwide. Zoetis Inc. (NYSE: ZTS) had a top initial public offering two years ago, and essentially traded sideways until breaking out back in November of last year and trading steadily higher since.

Zoetis continues to be one of the largest holdings in activist investor Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square hedge fund. The fund has continued to raise its stake in the company and now holds a reported 41,823,145 shares in the company as of May 15.

The company announced earlier this year that it completed the acquisition of the animal health assets of Abbott Laboratories. One major Wall Street firm said recently it believed the company could also make a bid for Idexx Laboratories. Zoetis itself has been the subject of takeover talk as well.

Zoetis investors are paid a small 0.68% dividend. The Merrill Lynch price target is posted at $63, and the consensus price objective is $53.33. Shares ended the trading day on Tuesday at $49.12.

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Some investors may raise an eye as Merrill Lynch adds Facebook at prices near a 52-week high. The bottom line is the company is basically in a world with no competition, and the likelihood of anyone knocking it off of its perch is highly unlikely at this juncture. The key going forward is how the company expands its repertoire as the social media numbers start to hit critical mass.