With the end of the year approaching, where are analysts most optimistic and pessimistic in terms of their ratings on stocks in the S&P 500?
Overall, there are 12,168 ratings on stocks in the S&P 500. Of these ratings, 54.0% are Buy ratings, 40.1% are Hold ratings, and 5.1% are Sell ratings. The percentage of Buy ratings is below its 5-year (month-end) average of 54.8%. The percentage Hold ratings is above its 5-year (month-end) average of 39.3%. The percentage of Sell ratings is slightly below its 5-year (month-end) average of 6.0%.
At the sector level, analysts are most optimistic on the Communication Services, Energy, and Information Technology sectors, as these three sectors are tied for the highest percentage of Buy ratings at 61%. On the other hand, analysts are most pessimistic on the Consumer Staples and Utilities sectors, as these two sectors have the lowest percentages of Buy ratings at 41% and 48%, respectively. The Consumer Staples sector has the highest percentage of Hold ratings at 53%, while the Financials, Industrials, and Utilities sectors are tied for the highest percentage of Sell ratings at 8%.
The ten S&P 500 companies with the highest percentages of Buy ratings and Sell ratings (with a minimum of 3 ratings) can be found below. Three of the top ten companies with the highest percentage of Buy ratings are also “Magnificent 7” companies: Amazon.com, Microsoft, and NVIDIA.
After falling to 53.6% at the end of October 2024, the percentage of Buy ratings for the S&P 500 has increased slightly over the past two months to 54.0% today. The value of the S&P 500 has increased by 2.8% (to 5,867.08 from 5,705.45) since October 31.
The FactSet Earnings Insight report will not be published on December 27. The next edition of the report will be published on January 3. Due to a technical issue, some of the charts and commentary normally published in the FactSet Earnings Insight report are not available this week. We apologize for any inconvenience.
This blog post is for informational purposes only. The information contained in this blog post is not legal, tax, or investment advice. FactSet does not endorse or recommend any investments and assumes no liability for any consequence relating directly or indirectly to any action or inaction taken based on the information contained in this article.