Analyst expectations for GOOG

In recent months as shares of Google have declined to $340 from a high of $475 on January 11th, analysts covering the stock have held tight with their price targets. Currently, the average GOOG price target of the 25 analysts that issue them is $489 per share (this does not include the $2000/share recommendation from Caris & Co. on January 6th). If the stock continues to slide or remain in its current trading range of $335 -385 , it seems that these price targets will begin to fall, most likely causing more short-term declines in the stock. While readers already know that I am not a big promoter of analyst recommendations, investors should realize that stocks do move on the news, so they should be aware of the current divergence in GOOG.