Google stock downgraded, finally
It was only a matter of time before what we've been saying -- and realizing -- as a Google customer, and what eBay realized a couple of weeks ago and said publicly, that Google's keyword paid-search prices were in a bubble.
According to this article on The Street.com on one of the top analysts, previous one of the most bullish on Google, downgrading the GOOG stock, just as the biggest? lock up comes to an end for Google insiders:
RBC Capital Markets' Jordan Rohan cut his investment rating on the stocks to sector perform, saying channel checks show unexpected weakness in paid-search pricing. Rohan, who had previously rated Google a "top pick" and Yahoo! outperform, lowered his price target on Google to $200 from $250 and cut Yahoo!'s to $34 from $43.
..."We had hoped that momentum in paid search from 4Q04 would carry through to 1Q05 results, but now we believe otherwise," the brokerage wrote. "Beyond first-quarter results, we do not see many catalysts to move the shares significantly higher as we move into the seasonally weakest time period."