Shares of Google passed the $600 mark for the first time on Monday, rising to a record $610.26 per share in midday trading, before slipping a bit to $609.62 at the New York market close--a gain of
$15.57, or 2.6% from Friday.
Analysts from investment giants like Piper Jaffray and Thompson Financial raised their expectations for Google last week, as the company moved closer to
releasing its latest quarterly earnings on October 18. Due in part to improved revenue forecasts, analysts at Bear Stearns, for example, have pegged the search giant's stock to reach $625 per share by
the end of 2007--setting a target price of $700 dollars.
Google's share price has grown along with its share of search, and push into areas like contextual advertising, and hosted email,
calendaring and publishing applications. Shares initially sold at $85 when the company went public in August 2004--and had closed at about $460 by the end of last year.
The search giant's
progress has even driven some industry analysts (namely Silicon Alley Insider's Henry Blodget) to forecast shares to hit $2,000 over the next few decades--but this quarter's all-important earnings
release will most certainly determine the stock's performance for the near term.