FBN Securities reported on Monday that they have lowered their 12-month base case estimate for Google Inc (GOOG) from $750 to $650. The firm, which maintained an ‘Outperform’ rating on the search giant’s shares said it made the change [via Benzinga] in response to the company missing “consensus revenue and EPS driven primarily by a deceleration in Google Site Paid Click growth from 33 percent Y/Y in FQ2 to 24 percent Y/Y in FQ3.”
The report also noted that as the company experiences slower growth in advertising it is making large increases in R&D spending by hiring at a rapid clip. Google’s capex totaled $7.4B through the first nine months of the year, up 45% from $5.1B Y/Y.
Google Inc. is currently printing a normal trading volume with the issue trading 867,435 shares, compared to the average volume of 1,738,910. The stock began trading this morning at $553.87 to currently trade down $4.72, or 0.84%, from the prior days close of $559.08. On an intraday basis it has gotten as low as $553.35 and as high as $557.90.
GOOG shares are currently priced at 29.16x this year’s forecasted earnings, which makes them relatively expensive compared to the industry’s 10.37x earnings multiple. The company’s next year EPS growth estimate stands at 14.60%, compared to the industry growth rates of 23.40%. Google has a t-12 price/sales ratio of 5.58. EPS for the same period registers at $19.00.
GOOG’s shares have declined 1.93% in the last 4 weeks and 2.45% in the past three months. Over the past 5 trading sessions the stock has gained 3.58%.
The Mountain View, California-based company, which is currently valued at $375.91B, has a median Wall Street price target of $645.00 with a high target of $750.00. GOOG is up 8.15% year-over-year ; down 0.88% year-to-date.
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