With the start of the fourth quarter approaching, where are analysts most optimistic and pessimistic in terms of their ratings on stocks in the S&P 500?
Overall, there are 13,097 ratings on stocks in the S&P 500. Of these ratings, 59.9% are Buy ratings, 35.5% are Hold ratings, and 4.7% are Sell ratings. The percentage of Buy ratings is above its 5-year (month-end) average of 55.9%, while the percentage of Hold ratings is below its 5-year (month-end) average of 38.6% and the percentage of Sell ratings is also below its 5-year (month-end) average of 5.5%.
At the sector level, analysts are most optimistic on the Communication Services (70%), Information Technology (70%), Materials (64%), Energy (64%), and Health Care (61%) sectors, as these five sectors have the highest percentages of Buy ratings. On the other hand, analysts are most pessimistic on the Consumer Staples (45%) sector, as this sector has the lowest percentage of Buy ratings. The Consumer Staples sector also has the highest percentage of Hold ratings (47%) and the highest percentage of Sell ratings (7%).
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 and on page 4 of the Earnings Insight report.
Since June 30, the percentage of Buy ratings on S&P 500 companies has increased slightly to 59.9% from 59.7%. At the sector level, seven sectors have recorded an increase in their percentage of Buy ratings over this period, while four sectors have recorded a decrease in their percentage of Buy ratings over this period.
It is interesting to note that if 59.9% is the final percentage of Buy ratings for the month, it will mark the highest (month-end) percentage of Buy ratings for the S&P 500 going back to at least 2010.
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.