I don't have a Wall Street Journal account so I can't read their article, but they have something that says investors will get money back if they overpaid for the stock. Interesting. online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20120523-711282.html
NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Morgan Stanley (MS) is reviewing orders placed by its retail brokerage clients for shares of Facebook Inc. (FB) on a trade-by-trade basis and will make price adjustments if those clients paid too much for the stock, according to people familiar with the situation.
In a memo sent Wednesday to the nearly 17,200 financial advisers of its Morgan Stanley Smith Barney retail brokerage joint venture, the firm says "in order to ensure best execution, we expect there will be a number of price adjustments."
The securities firm said, "the largest adjustments will be processed over the next several days and the remaining adjustments will be completed as quickly and as thoroughly as possible."
The orders in question occurred on Friday when Facebook's made its market debut. The event, though, was marred by trading glitches by the Nasdaq OMX Group Inc.'s (NDAQ) Nasdaq Stock Market, which delayed the start of trading in the social networking company by 30 minutes. Clients at Morgan Stanley and other brokerages also were left with orders that were processed improperly.
Nasdaq hopes to earmark at least $13 million to resolve bad trades related to the Facebook IPO, people familiar with the matter previously told Dow Jones Newswires.
In the memo Wednesday, Morgan Stanley said "many of the remaining executions have been processed and are now appearing in clients' accounts," though the firm said a "very limited number of orders are pending" and it's still reviewing the appropriate action with its trading partners.
Morgan Stanley didn't specify how many orders haven't been executed or how many are still pending.
Morgan Stanley is facing criticism over its role as lead underwriter in the well-hyped Facebook offering. Analysts at the firm and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) reportedly told clients this month that they were reducing earnings estimates following a Facebook filing that warned ad-sales growth isn't keeping up with the expansion of its user base.
On Tuesday, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority addressed those allegations, saying it would be a matter of regulatory concern if those communications had given some investors an unfair advantage.
Separately, William Galvin, Massachusetts's secretary of the commonwealth, said Tuesday he had issued a subpoena to Morgan Stanley "in connection with the discussions by their analyst with certain institutional investors about the revenue prospects for Facebook."
A Morgan Stanley spokesman Tuesday said the firm "followed the same procedures for the Facebook offering that it follows for all IPOs," adding that those procedures are "in compliance with all applicable regulations."