UPDATE 1-RESEARCH ALERT-Barclays cuts Google price target
(Recasts; adds analyst's comments, stock movement)
Nov 10 (Reuters) - Barclays Capital cut its fourth-quarter revenue estimates on Google Inc (GOOG.O) and lowered its price target on the stock, citing further macro weakness, but said the company should still gain share of advertising and online budgets.
Analyst Douglas Anmuth said the recent industry checks and data points suggest the search environment has deteriorated -- perhaps materially -- thus far in fourth quarter.
He cut his price target on the stock by $52 to $490, but maintained his "overweight" rating.
"Checks with multiple SEMs (search engine marketers) and comments from IAC & Infospace lead us to believe that October was weaker than expected, suggesting macro finally catching up with Google and search, impacting both paid clicks & CPCs (cost-per-clicks)," Anmuth said.
The analyst said he now projects the company's fourth-quarter net revenue to be flat quarter-on-quarter at $4.05 billion, compared with his earlier outlook of a growth of 3.4 percent.
"We think deceleration in search spending driven more by soft consumer demand than by marketers cutting budgets. Checks indicate savvy marketers want performance-based vehicles more than ever," Anmuth wrote in a note to clients.
Shares of the company were up about 2 percent at $337.25 in trading before the bell. They closed at $331.14 Friday on Nasdaq. (Reporting by Dilipp S Nag in Bangalore; Editing by Amitha Rajan)
