On Top of All-Time Highs, Why Analysts See Google Going Even Higher

After the markets closed Thursday, the company announced $6.99 in earnings per share (EPS) on $17.73 billion in revenue. That compared to Thomson Reuters consensus estimates of $6.71 in EPS on $17.75 billion in revenue. In the same period of the previous year, the tech giant posted EPS of $6.08 and revenue of $15.96 billion.

One key point in the report was that had foreign exchange rates remained constant from the second quarter of 2014 through the second quarter of 2015, revenues in this quarter would have been $1.1 billion higher, with a constant currency growth rate of 18% year over year.

Ruth Porat, recently appointed chief financial officer, commented on the earnings:

Our strong second quarter results reflect continued growth across the breadth of our products, most notably core search, where mobile stood out, as well as YouTube and programmatic advertising. We are focused every day on developing big new opportunities across a wide range of businesses. We will do so with great care regarding resource allocation.

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Following the release of this report, it appears that Google is back on the right track. Bringing on Porat for adult supervision and affecting cost-saving efficiencies has paid off so far, and analysts are in agreement on this.

After Google announced its stellar earnings, analysts piled on the stock:

• Piper Jaffray has an Overweight rating and raised the price target to $723 from $631.
• Sanford Bernstein has an Outperform rating and raised its price target to $800 from $700.
• JMP Securities has a Market Perform rating and raised its price target to $720 from $625.
• Jefferies has a Buy rating and raised its price target to $800 from $700.
• MKM Partners initiated coverage with a Buy rating and an $805 price target.
• Needham has a Buy rating and raised its price target to $740 from $675.
• FBR has an Outperform rating and raised its price target to $749 from $672.
• RBC has an Outperform rating and raised its price target to $750 from $640.
• Mizuho has a Neutral rating and raised its price target to $715 from $595.

A shares of Google were up 16.2% at $699.62 as Friday’s trading came to a close, after effectively hitting an all-time high earlier in the day. The stock has a 52-week trading range of $490.91 to $703.00. Google has a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 24.5, based on 2015 earnings.

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