Google (GOOG) Product Listing Ads 'Taking Off' - Analyst

Cantor Fitzgerald maintained a Buy rating on Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) and raised its price target to $1,300.00 (from $1260). Analyst Youssef Squali said checks indicate product listing ads (PLAs) are showing signs of tremendous success.

"With its superior user experience, greater engagement and higher conversion, PLAs (product listing ads) are revolutionizing the way retailers are buying keywords on Google. Returns so far have been impressive enough that ~$1B in incremental ad spend is likely to move to PLAs in 2014, by our estimate," said analyst Youssef Squali.

"While search advertising has been a mainstay in most online ad budgets, we believe PLAs could cause a faster shift of ad budgets to Google as merchants chase higher ROI channels and success of PLAs could, over time, make Google an even bigger starting point for shoppers, gaining share from Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) and eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY)," he added.

For an analyst ratings summary and ratings history on Google click here. For more ratings news on Google click here.

Shares of Google closed at $1131.97 yesterday.

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