Facebook now worth more than Wal-Mart on stock market

A 3D-printed Facebook logo is seen in front of the logo of the European Union in this picture illustration made in Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina on May 15, 2015. Belgium's privacy watchdog accused Facebook on Friday of trampling on European privacy laws by tracking people online without their consent and dodging questions from national regulators. The Privacy Protection Commission (CPVP/CBPL), which is working with German, Dutch, French and Spanish counterparts, launched the blistering attack after trying to find out more about the U.S. social media giant's practices. It urged Internet users to install privacy software to shield themselves from Facebook's tracking systems, whether they have an account with the social network or not. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic

Facebook is now bigger than Wal-Mart, at least when it comes to its value on the stock market.

The world’s biggest online social network knocked the world’s largest retailer out of the top 10 list of the highest-valued companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index on Monday and the gap widened on Tuesday.

While the switch is mostly symbolic nothing specific happened this week to warrant it, and the difference between the two giants is not that big it signals investors’ insatiable appetite for successful tech stocks. Apple, Microsoft and Google top the list of the highest-valued companies in the US, and Facebook looks to be on its way to joining them.

A company’s market value is calculated by multiplying the number of shares of stock it has in circulation by the current price of one share.

Facebook Inc was valued at USD 238 billion at the close of trading yesterday, according to FactSet. Its stock gained USD 3.14, or 3.7 per cent, at USD 87.88.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. was valued at USD 234 billion. Its stock dipped 22 cents to USD 72.57.

Facebook, which is based in Menlo Park, California, has been on a roll this past year, its shares up about 34 per cent in the past year compared with just 8.2 per cent for the S&P 500 index. Its quarterly results have consistently surpassed expectations.

Bentonville, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart, meanwhile, asked for investor patience after its most-recent earnings report showed a 7 per cent profit decline due to the effects of the strong dollar and higher worker wages and spending on its online operations.

Comparing the two companies’ financial results, though, shows just how much Wall Street is investing in growth and potential Facebook versus existing size and might Wal-Mart.

In the first three months of this year, Facebook’s total revenue of USD 3.54 billion amounted to just a little more than Wal-Mart’s total profit for its fiscal first quarter of USD 3.34 billion. But while Facebook saw revenue grow 42 per cent in the same period, Wal-Mart’s declined slightly.

That said, none of the nine companies that follow Apple in the top 10 come even close to the mighty iPhone and Mac maker, whose market capitalization is about USD 735 billion.