CLSA Talks With Mixpo: Sees Facebook As Top Pick, Twitter As Underperforming

Two analysts at CLSA, James Lee and Wei Fang, offered several takeaways from recent product calls by ad-tech firm Mixpo for Facebook Inc (NASDAQ: FB) and Twitter Inc (NYSE: TWTR).

Amid the product calls, Lee and Fang reiterated Facebook as a Top Pick and remained cautious on Twitter.

The analysts highlighted three data on three features from Facebook:

• "Instant Articles will likely increase user engagement and monetization for FAN (FB Audience Network);
• Canvas will likely become the new landing pages for brands, driving spending for new product launches. Lead-gen ads show that FB is gaining 2x pricing leverage while diversifying into the services industries such as healthcare, financial service and automotive; and,
• video ads are seeing a significant improvement in view-through rates (VTR), indicating improved relevancy."

Related to Twitter, Lee and Fang noted "Amply Open pre-roll ads appear to be promising, but concerns still remain for DR advertising."

The CLSA analysts maintain a Buy rating and $161 price target on shares of Facebook, and an Underperform rating and $16 price target on shares of Twitter.