Major Internet stocks rose Friday, with Google shares soaring after the Web search leader reported better-than-expected first-quarter earnings.
Google shares rose $96.69, or 21.1 percent, to $546.23 in afternoon trading. In the past year, the stock has traded between $412.11 and $747.24.
Late Thursday, Google reported its profit climbed 30 percent in the first quarter to $4.84 per share, handily beating analyst estimates and soothing investors' fears that Google would be hurt by broader economic weakness.
Jefferies & Co. analyst Youssef Squali upgraded the stock to "Buy" from "Hold" in a client note, citing "impressive improvements in monetization, no signs of weakness from the economic downturn and upside potential from display, video and mobile over time."
The analyst said that although the company's total paid clicks grew 20 percent year over year, growth has slowed in the last year. However, he noted Google's management maintains this is due to quality improvements the company has been making, not economic issues.
Analysts had been nervous about paid click growth, as recent data from comScore Inc. indicated Google's domestic Web search paid clicks were flat in January and up just 3 percent in February compared with the same months of 2007.
Squali holds a $600 price target for the stock.
Meanwhile, shares of Amazon.com Inc. rose $7.77, or 10.5 percent, to $81.81.
In a phone interview, Jackson Securities analyst Brian Bolan attributed the gain partly to Google's strong report, saying that there had been a fear that if paid click growth was slowing, it would likely impact online buying.
"It turns out everyone was clicking so the likelihood of them buying is probably better," he said.
Meanwhile, shares of online auctioneer eBay Inc. rose 84 cents to $31.85, while Google rival Yahoo Inc. added 62 cents to $28.65.
Yahoo is scheduled to report its first-quarter results on Tuesday.
In a note to investors, Stifel Nicolaus & Co. analyst George Askew predicted Yahoo will report first-quarter cash earnings per share of 15 cents on $1.32 billion in revenue, excluding traffic acquisition costs.
The analyst rates the stock "Hold."