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After 14 months and six days, Facebook is back.
Shares of the Palo Alto, Calif., company yesterday traded over their $38 initial public offering price for the first time since their debut — a comeback fueled by efforts to expand revenues from mobile advertising.
While the rebound should relieve some pressure on co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, it is sweet redemption for smaller investors in the social network giant.
“I have been a believer in Facebook for many years,” said Martin Varsavsky, the founder of Fon, a Wi-Fi company with a base in New York.
Varsavsky, who has worked closely with Zuckerberg since 2007, first bought shares in the company in July 2012, months after the IPO flop had beaten shares to around $28.
“I didn’t buy shares in the IPO because I felt it was overpriced at the time,” the entrepreneur told The Post.
He saw signs that many burned retail investors didn’t see — like the looming expiration of lock-up periods, which allowed insiders to sell shares and dilute the stock.
Once shares went sufficiently low, he jumped in.
“A significant part of my savings are in key tech shares,” including Facebook, he said.
In Indianapolis, Sean Hise, 29, said that 20 percent of his modest portfolio is now Facebook.
“I bought Facebook at its low: $19 a share,” said Hise, founder of a Web design firm called Exacta.
Hise’s patience has paid off with a return of about 100 percent.
He advised friends and colleagues not to invest in the IPO, predicting the troubles the social network would face with its transition to a mobile-first company.
“They weren’t creating revenue on mobile,” he said. “Now they are.”
Last quarter, more than 40 percent of its $1.8 billion in advertising revenue came from mobile ads.
Facebook shares, after topping $38, slipped in the afternoon to close at $36.80. They are up 38 percent this year.