The 10 top-searched stocks of 2014: Google is No. 6
Google has long-since entered the ranks of esteemed companies like Xerox and Kleenex – companies that have become synonymous with what they do. (Though, thankfully, not to the exclusion of others, otherwise you wouldn’t have searched GOOG on Yahoo.com and we wouldn’t have this list of most-searched stocks to share with you.)
But in Google’s case this quest towards world domination may finally be costing the company. The struggle is particularly touch-and-go when you’re talking about Google in Europe. There have been countless headlines in 2014 relating to the company's struggle with European regulators, which may be part of the reason Google was the sixth most-searched stock of the year.
Get the Latest Market Data and News with the Yahoo Finance App
“Little known fact: If you actually Google 'monopoly' in Europe, the answer is Google,” said Yahoo Finance’s Jeff Macke.
“They have really become the 900-lb gorilla in the world of Internet,” said Yahoo Finance Editor-in-Chief Aaron Task. “There was the right to privacy movement. Now there’s talk, it may just be symbolic, in the EU that they want to make Google break up.” In fact, several of our experts compared Google today to the Microsoft (MSFT) of the 90s.
Google and the EU have gone through so many rounds of regulatory sparring it’s getting hard to keep track, even for us journalists. The latest move came from the EU’s parliament and called for the company to spin off its search arm. The vote was largely symbolic at this point because the EU doesn’t have the authority to actually break Google up. But it’s still not the kind of vote that gives investors warm and fuzzy feelings.
“That whole thing that companies like Google [do where they] make money by learning all about you as a human being, [by] crawling into every aspect of your life and you just have to trust them to not abuse that information? Europe’s less on board with that than Washington, DC,” said Macke.
If that weren’t a bleak enough case for you, Yahoo Finance Senior Columnist Michael Santoli has more concerns. “I do think Wall Street is starting to question a lot of the side bets that Google is making, whether it be going to space or the driverless car,” he said. “It’s still a great business but I don’t think it’s one that growth investors are going to be attracted to in a really avid way too much longer.”
Or, if you want to simplify the case further, here’s Rick Newman’s take: “Can it get any better for Google? I don’t think it can get any better.” Meaning, it can get worse. “They’re just going to become a bigger target in the future.” In fact, he thinks there’s a possibility the anti-trust probes against the company in Europe could take hold in the U.S. at some future point. (Google is currently fighting a U.S. anti-trust suit tied to its Android devices.)
Still, the median price target among analysts is $640… a more than $140 gain from the current share price.
More of the top-searched stocks of 2014: