Facebook stock gets boost from Netflix CEO

Facebook stock may be down 40 percent since its debut in May. But Netflix CEO Hastings is a believer, buying $1 million of Facebook stock.

Chief Executive of Netflix Reed Hastings, seen here at a Sun Valley, Idaho, conference in July, has just bought about $1 million worth of Facebook stock.

Jim Urquhart/Reuters/File

August 12, 2012

Some investors have lost faith in Facebook whose shares are down more than 40 percent since their May stock market debut.

But Reed Hastings is getting some religion.

Hastings, chief executive of Netflix and a Facebook board member since June 2011, bought about $1 million worth of stock in the social networking giant, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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Hastings bought the shares Wednesday at a price of $21.03, a rare vote of confidence in the company.

On Friday Facebook’s shares were trading up 2.5 percent to $21.54. In May for its initial stock offering,Facebook sold shares to the public for $38 apiece.

A Netflix spokesman could not be immediately reached for comment.