Google's Lag Lingers

Indeed, Google's current blue-chip status among many fund managers stands in sharp contrast to how the stock was regarded in its public debut less than three years ago. Then, the company chose to go public in an unorthodox method and slowly gained legitimacy on Wall Street. A mushrooming market cap and mounting earnings made large investors both able and wanting to buy shares -- which helped fuel the stock's initial explosive trajectory.

But Google, a part of the S&P 500 index since March 2006, is anything but an emerging, fringe player these days. "Most large growth managers already have significant exposure to Google," writes Sanderson. "Who is the incremental buyer of the stock?"

Analyst projections for Google may also be unduly rosy, says Kessler, whose $525 price target for the stock has been more conservative -- and more correct -- than most. (The median price target for the stock is $600.)

Expenses for options are usually not factored into Google's stock price, even though they are for many other Internet companies, including Yahoo!(YHOO Quote) and CNet(CNET Quote), Kessler says. The relatively short amount of time that Google has been public -- combined with its almost always upward-moving price over that period -- can also lead to muted assumptions about the stock's volatility, a factor that's used by analysts to determine price targets.