Saturday, April 19, 2008

Wall Street analysts and GOOGLE

Google shares ramped up about 80 points on Thursday after the close of the market when their earnings were announced. Putting blind faith in Wall Street earnings estimates takes a leap of faith, just ask any stockbroker worth his commissions who gets his clients "killed" on analysts calls.

Analysts frequently get it wrong, they aren't paid to be right, something we all agree on is how they get paid on how much they are right and how much commission flow is generated by their calls or how much fee revenue is generated because of their research coverage that drums up investment banking fees. An illustration of this is clear in Google's earnings that beat estimates on Thursday. Most analysts on the stock had issued negative outlooks, citing the economy and slowing paid clicks as reasons for reducing estimates and price targets.

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