Google may have shocked Wall Street with its premature and disappointing earnings report on Thursday, but some analysts are largely sticking by the stock.
"As we look closer at the numbers, nothing looked secular it all looked pretty temporary and that sets them up for a nice rebound," Ken Sena, Evercore Partners analyst, told CNBC Friday. He maintains a "buy" rating on the stock.
Sena pointed to two main problems for Google during the quarter — a stronger dollar and losses at Motorola.
Sena said the strength in the dollar cut about $600 million off the core advertising business during the quarter.
Google also began to push product listing ads and didn't charge customers for it, Sena noted. While this meant a near-term sacrifice, the site changes "longer-term stand to drive much higher conversions and pricing," he said.
Sena also didn't see any changes to fundamentals or questions about how they monetize mobile.
Herman Leung, an analyst Susquehanna Financial Group, also remains "positive" on Google, despite lowering his price target to $800 from $880.
"I think overall fundamentals still remain intact for the business," he said. He is also positive on the transition to mobile, noting they posted $8 billion in mobile revenues up from $2.5 billion a year ago. (Read More: Google May Signal Trouble in Mobile: Analyst.)
"At some point, maybe in late 2013, we'll start to see some of that mobile cost per click start to tick up," Leung said.
The stock also looks cheap on 15 times 2013 earnings versus the online media space trading on 31 times. "For a company benefiting from the mobile theme with $8 billion in revenue, Android, search, new product releases. … I don't think that's too expensive," the analyst said of Google's valuation.
Shareholder Paul Meeks of Saturna Capital also remains a long-term bull and said the stock could climb above $800.
But he doesn't think investors should be buying the stock right now, as cost per click decreases have not stabilized and Google needs to return Motorola to profitability.
Longer term prospects look much brighter. As early as next year, "I think that the company still can probably do $50 earnings per share," he said. If you put a 15 times multiple on that, add in their cash per share which is now $124 and growing about $12 per share per annum, "I still get a stock in the mid-$800 range," he said.
—By CNBC.com's Justin Menza
Additional News: Google Has the Same Mobile-Ad Problem as Facebook
Additional Views: How Investors Should Play Google
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Disclosures:
Susquehanna Financial Group owns more than 1 percent of Google.
