Google slumps after Nexus One phone debut

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Buy on the rumor, sell on the news, as the old line goes.

Google Inc. shares are having their worst day since Oct. 30, one day after the company launched its Nexus One phone to take on Apple Inc.’s iPhone.

Google was down $16.28, or 2.6%, to $607.71 just before the closing bell at 1 p.m. PST.

Apple also was down, but more modestly: The shares were off $3.03, or 1.4%, to $211.35.

My colleague Jessica Guynn noted that the Nexus One “did not seem to have consumers salivating the way the iconic iPhone did.”

But the Wall Street Journal’s tech maven, Walt Mossberg, called Nexus One “the best Android phone so far, and the first I could consider carrying as my everyday handheld computer.”

Some Google investors may just be deciding it’s time to take a little off the top: The stock soared 101% last year, including a 25% jump in the fourth quarter.

At about $608 a share, the stock is priced at 27 times analysts’ mean estimate of 2009 earnings ($22.84 a share) and 23 times the 2010 estimate of $26.48 a share.

Google still is well below its record closing price of $741.79 reached in November 2007.

-- Tom Petruno