While waiting for the Facebook IPO so you can buy shares in the social media giant, helping Facebook to make a hundred billion new Friends ($100 Billion), don’t neglect adding a penny stock Friend to your portfolio which has been around the block for quite a few years already. With 528 million registered and willing users, FriendsFinder Networks (NASDAQ: FFN), the heaviest trafficked “hook-up” website group for consenting adults (you know you’ve been there before), has been the biggest producer in the Russell 3000 index thus far; up over 200% YTD, up 356% since December 20, 2011.
FriendsFinder Networks owns the most popular dating sites established on the net:
AdultFriendFinder.com- Amigos.com
- AsiaFriendFinder.com
- BigChurch.com
- FriendFinder.com
- PerfectMatch.com
- SeniorFriendFinder.com
The bread and butter of FFN is undoubtedly AdultFriendFinder.com. FrogAds.com may have Pamela Anderson, but with 41 million registered members, it is the #1 adult personals community, swinger and sex dating site in the world. The best part about FriendFinder Networks is not their subject matter or their content available by their registered participants, but more so their growth.
According to Marketdata, dating websites are expected to have a 7.2% annualized growth rate.
After having IPO’d on the NASDAQ in May, 2011 at $10 a share, FFN followed the path of most social media companies last year, losing market cap and stock price. FFN was almost half a dollar a just a few weeks ago and is now seeing a steady climb back towards its IPO price.
FFN Stock Chart (December 20 – February 17):
FFN is in no way Facebook or even in the ball park of Facebook, but with the online dating industry and forecasts the market to exceed $2.5 billion by 2015, FFN has the market share for the industry with its registered users to be able to capitalize on the multi-billion dollar industry.
Is it too late to have a date with FFN? Let’s have a look:
| Stock Statistics | Valuation Highlights | ||||
| 52-Week High (May 11, 2011) |
10.01 | Market Cap (intraday) |
72.74M | ||
| 52-Week Low (Dec. 20, 2011) |
0.51 | Enterprise Value (Feb 20, 2012) |
517.70M | ||
| 50-Day Moving Average | 1.23 | Price/Sales (ttm) |
0.22 | ||
| 200-Day Moving Average | 1.81 | Price/Book (mrq) |
N/A | ||
| Avg Vol (10 day) |
1.65M | Fiscal Year Ends | Dec 31 | ||
| Float | 7.65M | Most Recent Quarter (mrq) |
Sep 30, 2011 | ||
| Shares Short (as of Jan 31, 2012) |
1.38M | ||||
| % Held by Insiders | 12.98% | Revenue (ttm) | 338.13M | ||
| Balance Sheet | Qtrly Revenue Growth (yoy) |
-4.50% | |||
| Total Cash (mrq) |
16.47M | Gross Profit (ttm) |
N/A | ||
| Total Debt (mrq) |
461.42M | EBITDA (ttm) |
103.25M | ||
| Operating Cash Flow (ttm) |
35.57M | Diluted EPS (ttm) |
-2.37 | ||
So from the looks of it, FFN doesn’t appear to have the numbers to back-up a 356% jump in price in the last 8 weeks. When you consider EPS and P/B for this recent IPO is par for the course, the more interesting indicator for this penny stock to be a good stock to buy is the price relative to its 50 and 200 day moving averages.
Also, don’t forget, FFN IPO’d at $10 just 9 months ago.
With their individualized websites to capture each portion of the lonely guy and desperately seeking types out there, FFN is a penny stock that could easily double simply in the shadow of Facebook’s upcoming IPO hype.
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