Facebook's Oculus Prompts 30% Stock Target Increase

Facebook Inc.'s price target was raised to $120 from $92 at Piper Jaffray on Monday, with analyst Gene Munster calling the company's Oculus brand the "best play" in virtual reality as humans shift the way they communicate to virtual and augmented reality from smartphones and PCs. The brokerage also reiterated an outperform rating on the stock. Piper Jaffray predicts Oculus is worth around $5 billion, compared with Facebook's $233 billion market cap. Facebook paid $3 billion for Oculus in 2014 and expects to launch the first consumer-level Oculus headset in early 2016. "Oculus is a valuable insurance policy, and gives us greater confidence in Facebook's ability to sustain usership and revenue growth across its portfolio of products over the next 10+ years," Munster said. Shares of Facebook climbed 1.7% to $83.89 in premarket trade. They are down 1.5% over the last three months, compared with a 0.1% increase for the broader S&P 500.