Skip to main content

Market Overview

Bank Of America's Pair Trade: Yahoo & Google

Share:

Justin Post of Bank of America re-positioned media company ratings for 2015. The analyst downgraded shares of Google Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) to Neutral from Buy, while upgrading shares of Yahoo! Inc (NASDAQ: YHOO) to Buy from Neutral.

"On a high level, our rating change provides more exposure to China eCommerce where Alibaba is a market share leader (Yahoo's stock is driven by Alibaba), and less exposure to the U.S. and Europe economy, where Google is an advertising leader," Post wrote in a note.

Post downgraded shares of Google due to a lack of product catalysts, margin pressure to investments in businesses like cloud computer and retail delivery, increased regulatory risk, especially in the European Union. The analyst also notes Google faces heavy competition from Facebook in ad networks and from Apple's product cycle.

Post lowered his price target on Google to $580 from a previous $600.

On the other hand, Post upgraded Yahoo given the company's direct exposure to Alibaba and the potential for a tax efficient sale of the Chinese e-commerce giant.

“Yahoo's CFO recently indicated that there is no change to the company's stance on being optimistic on finding a promising tax solution and that Yahoo would communicate its plans by the next earnings call at the latest,” Post wrote in the same note.

Post adds that his optimism on Yahoo stems from Bank of America's $132 price target on Alibaba shares, as well as an improving core business outlook following Yahoo's acquisition of Bright Roll and search deal with Mozilla.

Post raised his price target on Yahoo to $62 from a previous $55.

Latest Ratings for GOOG

DateFirmActionFromTo
Mar 2022Deutsche BankInitiates Coverage OnBuy
Feb 2022JefferiesMaintainsBuy
Feb 2022JP MorganMaintainsOverweight

View More Analyst Ratings for GOOG

View the Latest Analyst Ratings

 

Related Articles (GOOG)

View Comments and Join the Discussion!

Posted-In: Alibaba AppleAnalyst Color Long Ideas Upgrades Downgrades Analyst Ratings Trading Ideas

Latest Ratings

StockFirmActionPT
SEDGB of A SecuritiesMaintains411.0
PTLOPiper SandlerMaintains28.0
AOUTLake StreetMaintains26.0
RAPTPiper SandlerMaintains52.0
OCXLake StreetMaintains6.0
View the Latest Analytics Ratings
Don't Miss Any Updates!
News Directly in Your Inbox
Subscribe to:
Benzinga Premarket Activity
Get pre-market outlook, mid-day update and after-market roundup emails in your inbox.
Market in 5 Minutes
Everything you need to know about the market - quick & easy.
Fintech Focus
A daily collection of all things fintech, interesting developments and market updates.
SPAC
Everything you need to know about the latest SPAC news.
Thank You

Thank you for subscribing! If you have any questions feel free to call us at 1-877-440-ZING or email us at vipaccounts@benzinga.com