Social Media

Instagram a 'massive driver' for Facebook: Analyst

Is Facebook headed to $100?
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Is Facebook headed to $100?

Instagram's growth and advertising's shift to digital platforms will drive a Facebook stock rally, Cowen and Co.'s head of sales trading said Thursday.

"Those trends are going to be very positive for Facebook, which is one of the few companies that's really going to benefit from that," David Seaburg told CNBC's "Power Lunch."

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The social network's stock has risen 2 percent this year and was trading around $80 per share on Thursday. Facebook-owned photo-sharing app Instagram, which a Cowen analyst recently valued at $33 billion, will be a "massive driver" for the social media giant, Seaburg said.

People are silhouetted against the Instagram logo at Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

He also noted that television advertising spending has increasingly shifted to digital and mobile platforms, which bodes well for Facebook.

Seaburg added that the trends benefit Facebook more than social rival Twitter, which has jumped more than 20 percent in the last month. It was up over 1 percent at around $50 a share Thursday.

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He would hesitate to buy it at those levels, though.

"At the end of the day, I'd be long Facebook and short Twitter because Twitter's overvalued here," he said.

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