Facebook and four other stocks went from market leaders to losers

What goes up must come down.

Some of the worst-performing stocks in August were one-time market leaders. Stocks including Facebook, General Electric, Citigroup, Under Armour, and Union Pacific tumbled last month after roaring higher from January to July.

One of those stocks looks ready to return to its former glory, said Craig Johnson, managing director at Piper Jaffray.

“The stock that stands out to me is Facebook,” Johnson said on CNBC’s “Trading Nation ” on Friday. “There’s a lot of fundamental overhang on the shares, [but] I would point out that the stock has been starting to put in a series of higher highs and higher lows, and you can see that the uptrend off of those January lows still remains intact at this point in time.”

“If the stock can continue to push ahead, they are setting ourselves up for a retest back to those old highs at about $219. That’s a little less than 20% upside from here. That’s something that I would be trading at this point,” said Johnson.

Facebook hit a record high in July 2018 before worries over regulation and privacy scandals took a massive swipe at its stock prices.

Steve Chiavarone, portfolio manager at Federated Investors, agrees that Facebook has the greatest potential for more upside.

“We think growth still works here, and when you look at Facebook, you’ve got double-digit … growth that looks to continue,” Chiavarone said in the same interview.

Analysts surveyed by FactSet anticipate 26% sales growth in Facebook’s September-ended quarter and 8% bottom-line growth. The social network reports earnings at the end of October.

Bipartisan efforts to regulate Big Tech, including Facebook, have hung over the stock and the broader technology space, but Chiavarone sees solid fundamentals that should make up for any headwinds out of Washington.

“You’ve got the regulatory overhang. but as you look forward, you’ve got the advertising spending that’s coming with the 2020 election, you’ve got 5G and it’s still the place to be with over 2 billion users in terms of your advertising spend,” said Chiavarone.

Disclosure: Federated Investors has a position in Facebook.

Disclaimer