Should clients invest in Facebook?

Facebook is updating its status to “public company” after its stock jumped during its debut on the Nasdaq Stock Market this morning.

The stock opened at $42.05 and later settled at $39. The stock is currently sitting below $40 per share.

For those looking to stay updated on Facebook’s worth, check out http://facebookworth.com/. The site tracks the worth of each user, as well as the dollar value of the company in real time.

Additionally, the Wall Street Journal is hosting a real-time monitor on Zuckerberg’s growing wealth called “The Mark Zuckerberg Wealth-o-Meter.” On it, you can see the current stock price and his share of the profit.

Facebook is one of the few profitable web companies to go public recently. It had net income of $205 million in the first three months of 2012, on revenue of $1.06 billion. In all of 2011, it earned $1 billion, up from $606 million a year earlier.

The company makes most of its money from advertising. It also takes a cut from the money people spend on virtual items in Facebook games, such as FarmVille and Café World.

Facebook’s public debut marks a new milestone in the history of the Internet, which started in 1995 when Netscape Communications’ IPO gave people their first chance to invest in a company that made the Internet easier to navigate.

Read: Invest in innovation

A word to the wise: Netscape’s popular IPO ignited the dot-com boom; the explosion of entrepreneurial activity and investment ended with the technology bust of the early 2000s.

Investors should avoid hopping on the Facebook bandwagon just for the sake of owning the hot stock, and should also keep their emotions in check amid the current IPO frenzy.

Read: More choice isn’t always better, for tips how to avoid overvaluing your stock choices.

Advisors should expect enthusiasm from clients over this stock due to media hype. For instance, Frederick Nolde, an investor from Virginia, travelled to New York for the company’s exchange debut. He also bought 100 shares through the online brokerage eTrade. In his opinion, the company is worth $100 billion.

“I think Google is a good comparison, and it’s worth $200-to-$300 billion,” he says. “The real question is: how will they do in mobile? If they can figure that out, they’ll do well.”

Facebook’s IPO underscores an evolution; understanding how people connect is now just as important as Google’s massive index of Web links.