Major Internet stocks mostly rose Wednesday following a huge rally in the overall market the day before, with eBay Inc. gaining as an analyst said the online auctioneer's core marketplace is showing improvements.
Shares of eBay gained 71 cents, or 2.6 percent, to $28.26.
In a note to investors, Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Shawn Milne said checks lead him to believe eBay's core marketplace metrics are improving in the wake of recent pricing changes and the rollout of its "Best Match" search algorithm.
Milne rates the stock "Outperform" with a $41 price target.
Stifel Nicolaus & Co. Scott Devitt, meanwhile, said he believes the company's 2008 outlook is conservative and its main transaction business appears to be "weathering the difficult domestic retail environment quite well."
Devitt reiterated his "Buy" rating for the stock but lowered his target share price to $35 from $37. He said the change reflects a "relative preference" for online retailer Amazon.com Inc.
Amazon shares rose $1 to $72.70. The company said Wednesday that it finished its purchase of online audio book seller Audible Inc.
Elsewhere, shares of online search engine operator Google Inc. rose $4.18 to $443.34.
Lehman Brothers analyst Doug Anmuth said February search data released late Tuesday by comScore Inc. implies Google continued to gain domestic search market share month over month, but with slowing query growth.
Anmuth said the company's domestic share gain "comes at the expense of Yahoo and MSN" but that Google's 26 percent year-over-year query growth is the lowest rate for the company since such a measure of data became available in April 2007.
Shares of rival Yahoo Inc. declined 47 cents to $27.19.
Yahoo released a cheery outlook on Tuesday for the next few years, which the company said supports its board's determination that Microsoft Corp.'s Jan. 31 takeover bid _ originally valued at $44.6 billion _ undervalues the company.
Yahoo also reiterated its first-quarter and 2008 guidance on Tuesday.
Internet conglomerate IAC/InterActiveCorp's shares rose 11 cents to $20.81.
Terms & Conditions
RSS Headlines
Fool UK