5 Stocks In The Spotlight Last Week: Wall Street's Most Accurate Analysts Weigh In

U.S. stocks settled higher on Friday, with the Nasdaq Composite jumping more than 1% during the session. Major indices also recorded gains last week, with the S&P 500 adding 4.6% and the Nasdaq jumping 6.7%. The Dow also notched a weekly gain of 2.5%.

Wall Street analysts make new stock picks on a daily basis. Unfortunately for investors, not all analysts have particularly impressive track records at predicting market movements. Even when it comes to one single stock, analyst ratings and price targets can vary widely, leaving investors confused about which analyst’s opinion to trust.

Benzinga’s Analyst Ratings API is a collection of the highest-quality stock ratings curated by the Benzinga news desk via direct partnerships with major sell-side banks. Benzinga displays overnight ratings changes on a daily basis three hours prior to the U.S. equity market opening. Data specialists at investment dashboard provider Toggle.ai recently uncovered that the analyst insights Benzinga Pro subscribers and Benzinga readers regularly receive can successfully be used as trading indicators to outperform the stock market.

Top Analyst Picks: Fortunately, any Benzinga reader can access the latest analyst ratings on the Analyst Stock Ratings page. One of the ways traders can sort through Benzinga’s extensive database of analyst ratings is by analyst accuracy. Here’s a look at the most recent stock picks from each of the five most accurate Wall Street analysts, according to Benzinga Analyst Stock Ratings.

Analyst: Richard Davis

• Analyst Firm: Canaccord Genuity
• Ratings Accuracy: 87%
• Latest Rating: Maintained a Buy rating on ServiceNow, Inc. (NYSE:NOW) and increased the price target from $900 to $1,075 on April 24. This analyst sees around 14% upside in the stock.
• Recent News: On April 23, ServiceNow reported better-than-expected first-quarter financial results.

Analyst: Jay McCanless

• Analyst Firm: Wedbush
• Ratings Accuracy: 86%
• Latest Rating: Maintained a Neutral rating on Century Communities, Inc. (NYSE:CCS) and cut the price target from $93 to $88 on April 24. This analyst sees around 61% surge in the stock.
• Recent News: On April 23, Century Communities reported first-quarter financial results and missed its adjusted EPS and revenue estimates.

Analyst: Doug Anmuth

• Analyst Firm: JP Morgan
• Ratings Accuracy: 85%
• Latest Rating: Maintained an Overweight rating on Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) and raised the price target from $180 to $195 on April 25. This analyst sees around 19% upside in the stock.
• Recent News: On April 24, Alphabet reported better-than-expected first-quarter financial results and announced a 5% increase to the dividend with the quarterly payout going to 21 cents per share.

Analyst: Matthew McClintock

• Analyst Firm: Raymond James
• Ratings Accuracy: 84%
• Latest Rating: Maintained an Outperform rating on Tractor Supply Company (NASDAQ:TSCO) and cut the price target from $61 to $57 on April 25. This analyst sees around 14% upside in the stock.
• Recent News: On April 24, The company reported quarterly earnings per share of 34 cents, missing the analyst consensus estimate of 37 cents. Quarterly revenues of $3.47 billion (up 2.1% year over year) missed the street view of $3.54 billion.

Analyst: Zachary Fadem

• Analyst Firm: Wells Fargo
• Ratings Accuracy: 84%
• Latest Rating: Maintained an Overweight rating on Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG) and cut the price target from $60 to $55 on April 24. This analyst sees around 6% upside in the stock.
• Recent News: On April 23, Chipotle Mexican Grill reported worse-than-expected first-quarter sales results.

Read More:

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