Company Update (NASDAQ:GOOG): Israel to Levy New Taxes on Google, Facebook in Policy Shift

[at Bloomberg] – Israel has expanded its definition of who must pay taxes on commerce, targeting digital multinationals such as Facebook Inc. and Google that critics say get a free ride. Read more on this. Alphabet Inc. (GOOG) , valued at $510.73B, started the session at $743.02. Today’s price range has been between $738.50 and $744.75 per share with the price of the stock fluctuating between $515.18 to $789.87 over the last 52 weeks. GOOG shares are currently priced at 21.35x this year’s forecasted earnings, which makes them relatively expensive compared to the industry’s 20.83x forward p/e ratio. Consensus earnings for the current quarter by the 37 sell-side analysts covering the stock is an estimate of $7.94 per share, which would be $1.06 better than the year-ago quarter and a $0.14 sequential increase. What we find to be interesting is that the full-year EPS estimate of $34.62 is a $5.04 improvement when compared to the previous year’s annual results. The quarterly earnings estimate is based on a consensus revenue forecast of the current quarter of $20.32 Billion. If realized, that would be a 17.73% increase over the year-ago quarter. More recently, Goldman upgraded GOOG from Neutral to Buy (Aug 26, 2015). Previously, Atlantic Equities upgraded GOOG from Neutral to Overweight. When considering if perhaps the stock is under or overvalued, the average price target is $930.08, which is 25.18% above where the stock opened this morning. See more in (NASDAQ:GOOG) Similar Articles: Stock Update (NASDAQ:GOOG): Why Are Google and Facebook Partnering with Each Other? Company Update: Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) – Google, Facebook Stealing TV Ad Budgets, Says RBC Company Update: Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) – Facebook Enhances Its Search Function to Take on Google