Analyst Rating Changes

Wall Street analysts publish ratings and price targets on most large companies. Upgrades and downgrades can move a stock for a day, but they are opinions, not facts. Here is how to read them and how much weight to give them.

What analysts do

Analysts at banks and research firms study a company, build a model of its future sales and profits and publish a rating such as Buy, Hold or Sell. Most also set a 12-month price target: where they think the stock could trade in a year.

The consensus is the average of all analysts covering a stock. Data services often score it on a 1-to-5 scale, where 1 means strong buy and 5 means sell.

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