Google Shares Hit Record High, Find Favor On Street

[aragorn]

[size=5]
[size=5][color=#000000][font=arial, helvetica, sans](Reuters) - Google Inc shares set an all-time high on Monday, with the Web giant's reliable advertising business back in vogue among Wall Street investors disenchanted with younger social media companies.[/font][/color][/size][/size][color=#000000][font=arial, helvetica, sans][size=4]
[size=5]The stock reached $748.90 in afternoon trading, inching past a previous record set in November 2007 of $747.24. It traded below $300 in 2009 during the global economic crisis and remained under pressure in the ensuing years as investors worried that Google's best years were behind it.[/size][/size][/font][/color][color=#000000][font=arial, helvetica, sans][size=4]
[size=5]The world's No.1 search engine, which generated $38 billion in revenue last year, now looks increasingly attractive compared with a new crop of social Web companies, analysts say.[/size][/size][/font][/color][color=#000000][font=arial, helvetica, sans][size=4]
[size=5]Facebook Inc, as well as once-hot companies Zynga Inc and Groupon Inc, came to the public markets amid sky-high expectations during the past year, but have fallen out of favor on concerns about their future business prospects.[/size][/size][/font][/color][color=#000000][font=arial, helvetica, sans][size=4]
[size=5]"The markets have to come to appreciate that Google's been making money hand over fist all this time," said Brian Wieser, an analyst at Pivotal Research Group.[/size][/size][/font][/color][color=#000000][font=arial, helvetica, sans][size=4]
[size=5]Google's lucrative search advertising business, as well as its efforts expanding into display and mobile advertising, have helped the company maintain robust revenue growth.[/size][/size][/font][/color][color=#000000][font=arial, helvetica, sans][size=4]
[size=5]In contrast, Facebook faces much more uncertainty.[/size][/size][/font][/color][color=#000000][font=arial, helvetica, sans][size=4]
[size=5]"It's so new that there's a lack of data points for anyone to point to," Wieser said.[/size][/size][/font][/color][color=#000000][font=arial, helvetica, sans][size=4]
[size=5]AT THE HELM[/size][/size][/font][/color][color=#000000][font=arial, helvetica, sans][size=4]
[size=5]The stock was up almost 2 percent at $748.20 in early afternoon trade. It has surged roughly 27 percent since mid-July, compared with the [url="http://www.reuters.com/finance/markets/index?symbol=us!dji"]Dow[/url] Jones Industrial Average's roughly 6 percent gain and a 9.5 percent rise on the Nasdaq.[/size][/size][/font][/color][color=#000000][font=arial, helvetica, sans][size=4]
[size=5]But at roughly 17 times expected 2012 [url="http://www.reuters.com/finance/earnings"]earnings[/url], it still trades at a hefty discount to Facebook's roughly 47 price-earnings multiple.[/size][/size][/font][/color][color=#000000][font=arial, helvetica, sans][size=4]
[size=5]Google's rising stock price comes about a year-and-a-half after co-founder Larry Page returned to the chief executive's role, replacing Eric Schmidt, who had the helm of the Web company for the previous decade.[/size][/size][/font][/color][color=#000000][font=arial, helvetica, sans][size=4]
[size=5]Page has moved aggressively to pare the company's sprawling portfolio of products, eliminating projects involving green energy and health among others, while stepping up Google's social networking efforts.[/size][/size][/font][/color][color=#000000][font=arial, helvetica, sans][size=4]
[size=5]But many of the challenges that pressured its stock in the past have not gone away. The company's ability to manage the $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility -- Google's first major foray into the lower-margin hardware business -- remains unproven.[/size][/size][/font][/color][color=#000000][font=arial, helvetica, sans][size=4]
[size=5]And Google is now facing significant regulatory scrutiny around the world, including antitrust investigations in the United States and in Europe.[/size][/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=arial, helvetica, sans][size=4]
[size=5]Source: [url="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/24/net-us-google-high-idUSBRE88N0Q320120924"]http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/24/net-us-google-high-idUSBRE88N0Q320120924[/url][/size][/size][/font][/color]

[babu_andrew]

[Mama77]

Google is next Apple
Apple ....> Microsoft