A rumor is circulating that eBay might lower its fees; we covered it earlier today if you find yourself wanting more information.  The upshot, though, is that a change might create a short-term boost in the company’s profits, and Bear Stearns cited this possibility as one of the reasons behind its "outperform" rating.

Bear Stearns‘s analysts also addressed leadership issues; some onlookers have pushed for the retirement of CEO Meg Whitman.  "We believe that Meg recently indicated that she would not be leaving shortly," they wrote.

They then continued, "However, we do believe that John Donahoe has been groomed as a potential replacement.  We hear from the Community that he has been very receptive to feedback and is actively focused on eBay’s issues.  Hence, whether Meg leaves or not, we think there is a deep bench and most importantly they are aware and addressing the issues, shunning the ostrich defense."

Finally, although the cause-effect relationship can be debated, eBay has thus far managed to meet Bear Stearns’s expectation, rising $0.34, or 1.21 percent, so far today.

A report from Bear Stearns analyst Spencer Wang made the prediction based on advertising rates for banner ads.

The CPM rate they used as a comparison is $6. That is quite low, especially considering the demographics of the audience. as BusinessWeek says they are: “business-minded, college-educated professionals with significantly above-average wealth—the sort of audience that advertisers, particularly makers of luxury goods, want to reach.”

The site has an estimated 989,000 subscribers and subscriptions are $79/year (though not all paying that rate). Traffic to the site is about 122.4 million page views a month. It seems a far stretch to get 12x the traffic, but earlier estimates said that it would take much less than that.

The report compares the WSJ.com with nytimes.com, CNN Money, usatoday.com MarketWatch and Yahoo Finance (see graphic).

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Bear Stearns Bullish, Says GOOG To $700

Optimism blossoms, like the blade of grass pushing its way through a downtown city sidewalk. Even with a real estate bubble beginning to show signs of pushing against online advertising, (though you wouldn’t know it from the IAB figures), hope grows in the hearts of stock traders when the name of Google is mentioned.

Bear Stearns has what Robert Plant would call a "Whole Lotta Love" for Google, especially its prospects through 2008. As Barron’s Eric Savitz noted, that investment bank has a substantial target for GOOG:

Bear Stearns Internet analyst Robert Peck today set a $700 target on Google (GOOG) for year-end 2008, and raised his earnings estimates for the Internet giant. "Google remains one of the best operating companies within our coverage universe, with EBITDA and EPS growth estimated at 21% and 20%, respectively, over the next three-to-five years," he wrote in a research note today.

"Google continues to gain market in search queries while continuing to face a bevy of competitors…Further, Google’s efforts in online video, radio and print have added a layer of value that is absent from its competitor’s portfolio of offering and which has the potential to yield significant financial rewards."

Yahoo could quibble with this, with respect to the print side cited by Peck. Through a series of deals with newspaper publishers, Yahoo has secured a number of partnerships to provide online job classifieds for papers, with staffs at those papers serving as the salesforce for HotJobs.

Yahoo Profits From Wall Street Love

How about some passion for Yahoo from the wheelers and dealers on Wall Street? Bear Stearns has found some love in its flinty heart for the much-derided Yahoo.

Barron’s Tech Trader Daily blog said Internet analyst Robert Peck of Bear Stears thinks far too many people are down on shares of YHOO:

Peck provides a list of potential catalysts for the stock over the next 16 months:

•  Success from branding initiatives.
•  Good results from Panama.
•  Takeover/strategic partnership talks.
•  Alibaba IPO.
•  Material share repurchase.

Peck has a price target on the stock of $30. Today, the stock is up 97 cents at $23.70.

Peck’s pick of Yahoo as a top pick has it pecking away at a nice start to the day on Wall Street. Yahoo gained $1.12 to $23.85 near midday, amid general rises in the NASDAQ, Dow, and S&P 500 indices.