Billionaire Investor Jeffrey Gundlach Is Going Short On Facebook, Long On Energy
Billionaire fund manager Jeffrey Gundlach expects Facebook’s stock price to tumble and energy stocks to climb, so he’s shorting Facebook and is going long on energy stocks.
Gundlach, the chief investment officer at DoubleLine Capital, made the statements at the 2018 Sohn Conference in New York on April 23, as reported by CNBC. Gundlach joins a growing chorus of skeptics that are jumping off the Facebook bandwagon as it continues to struggle with the fallout from its data-breach scandal.
In early-April, Apple CEO Tim Cook dissed Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg by suggesting that Facebook had cavalierly exploited its customers’ data for profit. Zuckerberg has been under fire from all sides amid accusations that Facebook improperly allowed third parties to mine user data without their consent.
Gundlach: Zuckerberg Apology Was Insincere
While Zuckerberg has apologized for the lapse, investors and Facebook users have not been so forgiving. Since the data-breach news broke on March 16, Facebook has lost more than $58 billion in market value, as the Inquisitr has reported.
And Facebook stock — once the darling of Wall Street — has plunged as regulators in the United States and Europe have launched investigations into the company’s dubious data practices.
Gundlach sarcastically referred to Facebook’s 2.2 billion users as “2.2 billion compliance breaches.”
Like many other investors, Gundlach said he felt Zuckerberg’s apology came off as insincere. He also believes that Facebook’s stock will struggle once the social media giant gets regulated, which he believes is inevitable now.
“Equity bubbles pop by regulation,” Gundlach said.
Gundlach has a fairly good track record for calling the market. In 2012, he famously shorted Apple stock before it crashed, saving himself and his investors a ton of money.
Meanwhile, Jeff Gundlach is bullish on commodities, saying he plans to buy oil and gas stocks because he believes they will be a good hedge against rising interest rates.
“One should expect that as the next recession approaches, commodities should have a big gain,” he predicted.
Backlash Against Facebook Continues
The backlash against Facebook has not really let up. While most FB users are aware that they willingly provide personal data on the social media platform, many were outraged after learning the company had allegedly sold that information to third parties without their consent.
Accordingly, scores of people have jumped on the “Delete Facebook” bandwagon, including celebrities like actor Will Ferrell, Tesla billionaire Elon Musk, and Playboy magazine, which deleted its page two weeks after the data-breach scandal broke.
“I can no longer, in good conscience, use the services of a company that allowed the spread of propaganda and directly aimed it at those most vulnerable,” Will Ferrell said in a statement.
