Fun facts from the Facebook confession

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Updated: February 5, 2012 7:37PM

So let’s say you’re hooked. Facebook has registered its initial public offering of shares and you’ll be eagerly awaiting the day they hit the market.

Even though you know IPOs are set up to benefit insiders and uber-insiders, you want a piece of the action. You “like” Facebook that much, time thief that it is, or maybe you misjudged Google (GOOG) and feel pressure to atone.

The prospectus for the Facebook IPO is 197 pages, 22 of which are devoted to the company’s self-assessed risks to its business. You’ll have ample time to go through it, but consider these five facts before adding the future ticker symbol FB to your holdings.

♦ 154 percent vs. 88 percent. Those are the rates of Facebook’s revenue growth in 2010 and 2011. Note the slowdown, albeit from a very high figure.

♦ 82 percent vs. 107 percent. Those are the rates of Facebook’s expense growth in 2010 and 2011. The company is seeing less payback from its initiatives.

♦ 28 percent vs. 57 percent. The first number is Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg’s ownership stake. The second number is the proportion of voting shares he controls. Forget independent board members. This is Zuckerberg’s baby. He is only 27, but he gets to appoint a successor in the event of his death.

♦ 425 million. The number of people who checked their Facebook accounts on mobile phones last month, more than half the total traffic. Yet ads are mostly absent from mobile devices and the company said it’s having trouble adapting to that use.

♦ 9. The number of law firms and brokerages that will manage the IPO. They are due for big paydays, as are that proportion of the 3,200 Facebook employees who have stock options, as are private investors whose census may run into the hundreds.

That’s a long line at the Facebook pay window. If you want the stock, you’re at the end of it.

LOCAL CHECKUP: Updates are in order for some Chicago-area stocks I’ve had on my radar for some time.

Brunswick (BC): The marine, bowling and billiards combine has cleaned up the balance sheet while enjoying operating margins of about 30 percent. In its latest quarter, a seasonally weak one, BC reported a smaller loss than Wall Street expected. Analysts at Robert W. Baird Co. said, “We like Brunswick for investors seeking exposure to a recovery in discretionary spending.”

Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL): The global provider of real-estate services had a strong fourth quarter, but is behaving cautiously while overseas markets sort themselves out. “Management is clearly focused on margins over growth in the near term,” wrote analysts at William Blair & Co., who think the stock is a trifle high at the current $81.44 and recommend buying only in the low $60s.

Navistar (NAV): The truck producer is accelerating out of first gear. Robert W. Baird & Co. analysts see better margins from engine manufacturing, better results overseas and a possible revenue jolt from new vehicle programs in the military. The company’s challenge, they said, is consistency.

Sara Lee (SLE): Analyst Dave Novosel at Gimme Credit reported on Sara Lee’s forthcoming spinoff, which will separate its meat business from coffee and tea. Novosel said meats just aren’t faring well at Sara Lee, with margins falling as consumers resist price increases. Coffee and tea are doing better, but Novosel said results for the entire company are clouded by ubiquitous restructuring charges.

WHAT GOLDMAN WANTS: If Goldman Sachs (GS) advised buying certain stocks, would you do it or regard the recommendation as some sort of evil plot?

I suppose the answer is to do your own legwork. So with that in mind, here are Goldman Sachs’ recent buy recommendations to clients, as reported by MarketWatch.com.

These companies were lauded: chemical manufacturer LyondellBasell (LYB), energy drink seller Monster Beverage (MNST), brokerage Charles Schwab (SCHW), brokerage Stifel Financial (SF), electric car manufacturer Tesla (TSLA) and chemical producer Westlake (WLK).

Goldman said it expects Tesla to go higher than $35 a share. It closed Friday at $31.15. The company has never made a profit, but a key model is due in showrooms this July.

OIL CHIC: Greater U.S. production of oil will contribute to a surprising decline in per-barrel prices this year, said Byron Wien, vice chairman of Blackstone Advisory Partners, in an interview with Yahoo Finance. Wien said oil will slip to $85 a barrel, about 13 percent less than the current price. “The prospect of the U.S. becoming less dependent on foreign oil is a game changer,” he told the web site.

CLOSING QUOTE: “There is only one word for it — blowout!”—Brian Wesbury, chief economist, First Trust Advisors, on Friday’s unemployment report that saw the jobless rate in January drop to 8.3 percent on a whopping gain of 257,000 private payroll jobs