Chasing Value: Is it Google time?

The market is down substantially today across the board(s) but Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is up. Pre-market, I wrote a post Google going the wrong way - down!?, reporting on the recent decline in Google's share price and its fall from grace due to competition and not meeting analysts expectations.

This morning some of my comments must have resonated through the offices of various Wall Street market wizzards who have pushed Google up about 2%, back up over $500 per share. I'm sure there are many value investors out there that had their warning bells go off this morning when Google opened at $489.43.

Google is in the business headlines every day and nothing this morning was so different from yesterday except the price. Has it reached a bottom? Will investors support the stock price at or around the $500 level? I think so. I do not expect it to return to its recent highs any time soon, but I do think it looks like a value here. As long as Google is growing at a rate that exceeds the forward P/E 26 and maintains 25% profit margins, it seems like a reasonable bet. It's Q4 was 51% growth year over year and look at it's CASH - As of December 31, 2007, cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities were $14.2 billion.

Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the design and research principal for an architecture & planning firm. Disclosure: I do not own shares of GOOG.