Facebook Stock Rises 3% on Monday, Over 1% in Pre-Market on Tuesday

Facebook, Inc. (FB) stock rose 3.22% on Monday, December 10 and was up over 1% in pre-market trading on Tuesday. The social media giant’s stock has risen to $141.85 a share, up from $141.55 on November 12. The company’s stock prices had fallen as low as $131.55 on November 19 but has since started to recover.

The company’s privacy concerns weighed on investors and have since eased, helping the stock to recover.

Facebook has suffered from a rocky start in 2017 following the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which allowed unauthorized access to user data. User growth has plateaued despite the company maintaining 2.2 billion monthly active users.

The company has invested in additional tools and employees to help rebuild user trust in the platform. Rising costs and slower growth along with a tarnished brand image have caused Facebook stock to fall over 21% year-to-date.

Instagram, the company’s photo-sharing app, has also taken steps to boost privacy. The platform, where users post images and videos to gain Instagram followers, has announced that Vishal Shah will be taking over as head of product.

Facebook also announced that the company will repurchase an additional $9 billion of its own shares. A year prior, the company said it would repurchase $15 billion in shares. The announcement helped boost the stock on Monday.

Deutsche Bank also claimed that the social media company’s stock is “extremely attractive.” Re-acceleration in growth will remain a key factor for Facebook going into 2019, with many investors eyeing the company’s “Stories” format as the key to growth acceleration by mid-2019.

Market power concerns will remain a top worry for investors in December after news from Australia reveals that the nation’s top watchdog has joined criticism over Facebook and Google’s use of data. Concerns that the two tech companies have too much power in the advertising and news market are also expected to cause headwinds for the companies going into the final weeks of the year.

A report, released on Monday by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, recommends that an existing or new watchdog should monitor the companies’ ranking mechanism for news, adverts and search results. Lack of transparency in how both companies display their results is also a concern.

The report claims that due to Facebook and Google’s large market share, the companies should have greater regulatory oversight than smaller entities. Enforcement in digital platform power remains difficult with recommendations, including providing advanced notice before acquiring other companies.