Google Falls Amid Downgrade From Atlantic Equities

Shares of Google Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) fell at Monday’s open amid Atlantic Equities downgrading the stock from Overweight to Neutral.

The Atlantic Equities downgrade follows Stifel’s January 8 downgrade from Buy to Hold.

“Google is in the early to mid stages of a core business maturation,” according to Stifel analyst Scott Devitt. “The company continues to find growth outside of search, but in structurally lower-margin business segment such as Google Play and YouTube.”

Google recently traded at $492.03, down about 1 percent.

"Today's downgrade aside, Google remains a must-have long-term position for investors," Dr. Thomas Carr, founder and CEO of DrStoxx.com told Benzinga. "With 91.5 percent market share on all browsers and operating systems, with 6 times the ARPU (ad rates per user) of Facebook, with a wide moat and a P/E below its historic average, GOOG shares look attractive at these levels."