Zuckerberg’s pockets swell by $30B

Watch out Warren Buffett. Mark Zuckerberg is on your tail.

Following Facebook’s betterthan-expected results Wednesday, the No. 1 social media company is worth $306.4 billion. That not only puts Facebook’s market value ahead of General Electric at $299.6 billion, it makes Facebook the seventh most valuable company in the Standard & Poor’s 500.

The next company Facebook is poised to overtake is Amazon (which it had briefly exceeded in value during the day), then Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, valued at $336.5 billion, S&P Capital IQ says.

Facebook has shaken off doubts about its longevity around the time of its initial public offering in 2012. Shares suffered in the months following the IPO. But since then, it has been a home run. Facebook stock was first sold for $38 a share. Thursday, it closed at $108.76, a gain of 186%.

There’s no question Facebook is not a cheap stock, as shares are trading for more than 100 times its diluted earnings over the past 12 months. That’s a nosebleed valuation even for a company that’s expected to grow by roughly 30% a year over the next few years.

Facebook has generated net income of $2.8 billion on revenue of nearly $16 billion over the past 12 months. Analysts are calling for Facebook’s adjusted profit to jump 22% this year and 31% next year, S&P Capital IQ says.

Zuckerberg owns 426.3 million shares of Facebook, or 15% of the shares outstanding. That means his stake in the company has gained $30.2 billion since the IPO to $46.4 billion.