Saturday, October 19, 2013

Google Stock Tops $1,000 a Share

For the first time ever, Google shares (NASDAQ: GOOG) have crossed the $1,000 a share mark. Google stock is soaring in early trading, up more than $110 a share, a gain of nearly 13 percent just today. It’s been a great 2013 for Google shareholders. The stock is up over 40 percent this year and over the last 5 years shares have surged almost 170 percent.

For investors who jumped on the Google bandwagon early when it went public nine years ago, the ride has been even sweeter. Those investors have been watching the stock since its IPO price, $85 a share.

The reason for today’s triple digit dot-com-like surge is its third-quarter earnings report that blew past Wall Street’s expectation. The company earned $3 billion in the three months that ended in September, compared with $2.2 billion in the same period last year.

Today’s surge means Google’s added $35 billion in market cap, which is more than the total size of Yahoo ($34.1 billion).

Google’s big day is having a halo effect across the tech sector. Facebook shares are up almost 4 percent today, above $54 a share. FB has now doubled this year, up 103 percent since Jan. 1.
The stock of another high flyer of the year is also surging today: Chipotle (CMG) is up $55 a share, a nearly 13% rise to $494 a share. And this year two other big momentum names of the S&P 500 have posted returns of over 200%: Best Buy is up 261.9%, and Netflix is up 259%.

Google is the latest company to cross the magical $1,000-a-share mark. Just last month Priceline’s stock hit the $1,000-a-share mark and another member of this elite club is Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. But both Google and Priceline have a long way to go before catching shares of the Oracle of Omaha’s company. Berkshire shares currently trade at around $175,000 a share.