That’s been in question in recent weeks and months.  A financial chart showing the performance of the Dow, the Nasdaq, and Google over the last year isn’t too favorable, for example.

At the same time, a chart covering the past six months makes Google’s stock look all right.

So on to what the Citi expert said.  Pascal Emmanuel-Gobry, who got his hands on Mark Mahaney’s report, wrote, “The gist: the stock is cheap, Facebook isn’t that big a deal, and YouTube and local are going to be huge.”

Mahaney himself even predicted that YouTube will earn over $1.1 billion in revenue in 2012, explaining, “Q1 data shows YouTube’s share of total videos streamed remaining at a very high 41%.  Further, our proprietary YouTube Ad Tracking Analysis shows 81% of YouTube’s Top 100 Videos now being ad-monetized vs. 77% in Q4 and approximately 60% a year ago.”

So a return to the good old days may be in order for Google.  After all, for a while, Google’s stock just went up and up, and almost every quarter it delivered an earnings report that would shock and amaze (in a good way).

Google’s stock rose 2.75 percent today, by the way, which should please current shareholders and perhaps draw in a few more people.

Google’s suffered a lot of small defeats like this in recent weeks and months.  Two of our last four articles relating to both Google and money touch on estimates getting cut, in fact, with a third noting when the company’s shares sank below $500.  (The fourth just discusses how Google is using financial experts to manage its war chest.)

Also, we should note that Google’s stock is down 0.47 percent at the moment, while Yahoo and Microsoft are only down 0.13 percent and 0.04 percent, respectively, and the Dow and Nasdaq are both up.

Anyway, with regards to Citi’s announcement, Eric Savitz reported earlier today that analyst Mark Mahaney "trimmed his 2010 EPS forecast to $27.41 from $28.21, while cutting 2011 to $31.30, from $32.45.  He reduced his price target on the stock to $630, from $640.  Mahaney says the move reflects a combination of a change in FX expectations and reduced Nexus One sales estimates."

The Q&A portion of Google’s next earnings call could be a little more confrontational than usual at this rate.

MKM analyst Tim Boyd explained according to a Benzinga article "that the risks facing Google Inc, such as the loss of the China market, had been fully priced into the company’s stock price."  Also, "The analyst said that the approval of the AdMob acquisition was an unexpected positive."

As for why Citi made its move, Citi analyst Mark Mahaney argued according to Eric Savitz that "the stock has been held back by a series of concerns which he thinks are overblown."

And although that might not sound like the best thing in the world, the situation’s driven down the price (see the graph below) to a point at which Mahaney thinks Google represents a "compelling risk-reward opportunity."

So now Google’s stock is heading up in a big way (by more than 2.50 percent so far), even though the Dow and Nasdaq are down and just a tiny bit up, respectively.

The announcement has not been met with a tremendous amount of enthusiasm however. For example, Marshall Kirkpatrick at ReadWriteWeb says, "MySpace is a lot of things, and despite Facebook’s formidable attack it remains wildly popular, but an institution of trust and responsibility MySpace is not!"

From the purely financial standpoint as well, the card has had some shortcomings pointed out already. "Noticeably absent from the manifesto is a call to pay off your balance every month, which you’d better do since the card has a starting APR of 14.24% which is high even for a student with limited credit history," explains Josh Smith at Walletpop. "As a comparison, the same Citi FORWARD card without a MySpace logo carries an APR of 12.24% which is still high but a full 2% less than that of the MySpace card."

To be fair, the move isn’t being poorly received by everyone. "This is a no-brainer for MySpace, as all they really need to do is supply their brand and collect referral fees from Citi," says Mashable’s Adam Ostrow who notes that MySpace continues to "run laps" around its competitors in terms of monetization. 

Furthermore, the rewards program might provide a little extra spark to MySpace Music, which the social network launched in the later part of last year.

Citi spins the MySpace branding of the card as highlighting social responsibility since you can earn points for "completing socially responsible acts" like donating to food drives, going paperless, switching to energy efficient light bulbs, etc. More details can be found at the card’s official site and its MySpace profile.

Google’s Stock Chart

"We believe the long-term growth opportunity for Net Advertising & Search is still well intact," said Mahaney.  Henry Blodget reports that he also pointed out, "Google is clearly taking share in Core Search."  And indeed, it’s hard to imagine that the company running a site many of us visit 10 (or 100) times a day could get hurt too badly.

As an added bit of comfort, anyone who wants to "think happy" should be glad to hear that Mahaney and his Citi associates weren’t forming opinions in a locked room.  Mahaney stated, "Based on exchanges with over 40 search industry participants – including several key SEM agencies at this week’s SMX Conference – we do not believe Google’s Paid Leads have descended to a No Growth Level."

Still, the Nasdaq lost 0.94 percent of its value yesterday, and today, an additional 2.58 percent.  In this sort of market, it’s hard to feel sure about anything, and even harder to feel positive.  Blodget, for example, responded to some of Mahaney’s comments with counterpoints, and characterized the overall tone as "optimistic."

Believe what you want.  We’re becoming fans of the money-stuffed mattress approach to investing.