Investors frequently distrust Wall Street analystsm and rightfully so. History has shown numerous conflicts of interest where analysts had been incentivized to publish optimistic research in order to cross-sell other service lines.
Over the years these conflicts of interest have led to new regulations forcing Wall Street to clean up its act — think Reg Fair Disclosure and Sarbanes-Oxley. Individual investors are now less frequently fooled by analysts and investment banks as a result of the regulation improvements.
However, analysts are still human, and often make stock recommendations off emotional biases. Bearing this in mind, I vetted today’s analyst rating changes and found the top 5 where unbiased fundamental data supported the upgrade / downgrade.
Here are the 5 best recommendations supported by finbox.io’s fair value estimates.
Best Upgrades
Superior Energy Services (NYSE:SPN) upgraded by Capital One to overweight.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) upgraded by Raymond James Financial to outperform.
Best Downgrades
Seattle Genetics (NASDAQ:SGEN) downgraded by Cantor Fitzgerald to hold.
Analog Devices (NASDAQ:ADI) downgraded by Citigroup to neutral.
Regal Entertainment (NYSE:RGC) downgraded by Hilliard Lyons to neutral.
Here’s how all five stocks have performed over the last 3 years:
