Google shares slump to lowest in three years

DESPITE GOOGLE maintaining a hard-faced approach to financial stability in recent months, its shares dropped yesterday to under $300 for the first time in over three years.

Even though Citigroup analyst warned that a slump in online advertising would most likely affect the search giant, it refused to believe that it would be affected that much.

Google’s stock crashed down 6.6 percent to end trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market at $291.00 yesterday which is a record low since 2005.

Fears have risen for technology companies since the financial slow-down with the value of goods slashed by billions of dollars.

Mark Mahaney of Citigroup lowered estimates for the search giant in the last quarter of 2008 as well as the next two years. While reducing his target price of the stock to $450 he maintained a ‘buy’ rating.

It’s quite amazing what a difference a year can make, as this time last year Google’s stock was right up there at $747.24.

Companies such as Merrill Lynch, American Technology Research and Credit Suisse all upgraded their share price target for Google to $740 from $590, $815 and $900 respectively.

Although this all looks bad for Google at the moment, it seems no one is really that concerned. Most analysts speculate that the company’s shares will do well again due to its sturdy market share in Internet search and the current interest in online advertising from the likes of Microsoft. µ

L'Inq
PC World