But concerns regarding a slowdown in growth still remain
Google's addition to the S&P 500 should provide "a nice boost" to the stock, said research firm Merrill Lynch, but concerns regarding a slowdown in growth still remain.
"Fundamentally, things are relatively unchanged for the company as investors are still concerned about the possible slowing of revenue growth," wrote analysts Justin Post and Lauren Rich Fine in a recent report.
The Merrill Lynch analysts highlighted recent share price gains for media and eCommerce stocks and a decline in online travel stocks for the two week period ended March 24.
Google led a slight increase in media and eCommerce stocks, according to the Merrill Lynch report.
The firm maintained its overall 2006 growth estimate of 27% year-over-year for the media and eCommerce stocks in its coverage in anticipation of higher rich media spend in branded and a shift back to "seeing online branding as important."
Media and eCommerce stocks (excluding Overstock.com) were up 1.6% and 1.4% respectively, while online travel stocks were down 1.2% over the two-week period, trailing the S&P 500 Index, which was up 1.7%.
Overstock.com and Google were the leading positive performers, up 33.1% and 8.4%, respectively. aQuantive, Digitas and Sabre Holdings led the declines, down 3.8%, 2.2% and 1.9%, respectively.
Post and Fine said the launch of Google Finance, also last week, opens up more opportunities to serve ads without adding too much in content costs and demonstrates its willingness to become more like a portal, keeping users engaged on Google’s sites.
"This could be viewed both positively (added revenue opportunity) and negatively (core model is slowing)," said the analysts.
In online travel news, Cendant hosted an Analyst Day on March 21 and indicated that marketing spending for its online travel segment would to be up 30% to 40% year-over-year this quarter.
Spending by Cendant, along with Expedia, could pressure online travel margins for Orbitz and Expedia in the first quarter, but could be a net positive for online portal and search companies with travel advertising exposure, said Post and Fine.
Google's addition to the S&P 500 should provide "a nice boost" to the stock, said research firm Merrill Lynch, but concerns regarding a slowdown in growth still remain.
"Fundamentally, things are relatively unchanged for the company as investors are still concerned about the possible slowing of revenue growth," wrote analysts Justin Post and Lauren Rich Fine in a recent report.
The Merrill Lynch analysts highlighted recent share price gains for media and eCommerce stocks and a decline in online travel stocks for the two week period ended March 24.
Google led a slight increase in media and eCommerce stocks, according to the Merrill Lynch report.
The firm maintained its overall 2006 growth estimate of 27% year-over-year for the media and eCommerce stocks in its coverage in anticipation of higher rich media spend in branded and a shift back to "seeing online branding as important."
Media and eCommerce stocks (excluding Overstock.com) were up 1.6% and 1.4% respectively, while online travel stocks were down 1.2% over the two-week period, trailing the S&P 500 Index, which was up 1.7%.
Overstock.com and Google were the leading positive performers, up 33.1% and 8.4%, respectively. aQuantive, Digitas and Sabre Holdings led the declines, down 3.8%, 2.2% and 1.9%, respectively.
Post and Fine said the launch of Google Finance, also last week, opens up more opportunities to serve ads without adding too much in content costs and demonstrates its willingness to become more like a portal, keeping users engaged on Google’s sites.
"This could be viewed both positively (added revenue opportunity) and negatively (core model is slowing)," said the analysts.
In online travel news, Cendant hosted an Analyst Day on March 21 and indicated that marketing spending for its online travel segment would to be up 30% to 40% year-over-year this quarter.
Spending by Cendant, along with Expedia, could pressure online travel margins for Orbitz and Expedia in the first quarter, but could be a net positive for online portal and search companies with travel advertising exposure, said Post and Fine.
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