Analysts' views carry a significant weight on Wall Street. Investors often see share prices rise if an analyst upgrades a stock or maintains a previous rating while increasing the price target. Sometimes, analysts review a particular sector or .
It's always interesting to see the nuances of consistency when analysts raise price targets on stocks. Often, they will increase price targets on groups of stocks in a certain sector. Sometimes an analyst will announce price hikes that are similar to one or two other analysts from the same firm on the same day. Is that a coincidence? It doesn't seem to be. For example, on Feb. 26, three Morgan Stanley analysts maintained Equal-Weight ratings on six different REITs, while raising the price target
A bellwether stock is defined as one that is believed to be a leading indicator of the direction of the economy, sector or market. When bellwether stocks post earnings, it's often a good bet that the rest of the sector will probably report similar earnings. After the bellwether reports earnings, other stocks of that sector will often rise or fall "in sympathy" with the bellwether. Real estate investment trusts (REITs) have several subsectors, and each one has at least one bellwether stock. Sever