What do stock analyst ratings mean
Stock Analyst Ratings A stock rating is a measure of the expected performance of a stock in a given time period. Analysts and brokerage firms often use ratings when issuing stock recommendations to stock traders. Analysts arrive at stock ratings after researching public financial statements of various companies, talking to executives and customers, or listening in … In-the-know people on Wall Street know that an analyst's buy or sell rating on a stock has many shades of subtlety. But do ordinary investors understand the code? What Analyst Ratings Really Mean The analyst ratings scale is a tad trickier than the traditional classifications of "buy, hold, and sell." The various nuances, detailed in the following chart, include multiple terms for each of the ratings (sell is also known as strong sell, buy can be labeled as strong buy), as well as a couple of new terms: underperform and outperform.