New research ranking analyst performance has found that Benzinga Analyst Ratings can be used to gain an edge on the market. Interestingly enough, the three firms that proved to be the most accurate in 2021 share a common price target on the largest company in the world.
What Happened: Data specialists from Toggle.ai have found that analyst insights, which are regularly sent to Benzinga readers and Benzinga Pro subscribers, can successfully be used to outperform the market.
The Toggle.ai study included 34,049 analyst ratings and revisions on 4,636 stocks. The researchers tested a range of entry and exit percentages based on the analysts' target prices.
Toggle.ai found that KeyBanc Capital Markets analysts had the highest success rate at 70.1% followed by a 69.5% success rate for Wells Fargo analysts and a 67.8% success rate for Citigroup analysts.
Related Link: Exclusive Study Finds Benzinga Analyst Ratings Data Yields Market-Beating Strategies
Why It Matters: The analyst firms research a variety of different stocks in different ways, but when it comes to the most widely held stock in the market — Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) — all three firms have the same price target of $185 per share.
Wells Fargo was the first of the group to pin a $185 price target on the Cupertino-based company. Analyst Aaron Rakers maintained Apple with an Overweight rating and lowered the price target to $185 from $205 ahead of the company's third-quarter report. Rakers has not updated his call since adjusting his price target ahead of earnings.
Citigroup was the first to up its price target following the company's third-quarter results, which topped estimates. Citigroup analyst Jim Suva maintained Apple with a "buy" rating and raised the price target to $185 from $175.
"While investors were concerned about the general slowdown in consumer spending, Apple posted an all-time high over 1.8 billion installed base which sets up well for future services sales, upgrades and replacements," Suva wrote in a note to clients.
Keybanc analyst Brandon Nispel was the next in line. Nispel maintained an "overweight" rating and raised the target to $177 from $173 following Apple's third-quarter results.
Less than three weeks later, the Keybanc analyst increased the price target to $185, noting that KeyBanc First Look Data showed that Apple's sales were off to a historically strong start in the fourth quarter.
See Also: Analyst Ratings for Apple
AAPL Price Action: Apple has a 52-week high of $182.94 and a 52-week low of $129.04. The stock ended up nearly 1.6% higher at $156.90 on Tuesday, according to data from Benzinga Pro.
Photo: Courtesy of Apple.
