Question about Wall Street Analysts

[Wolf Frankula]

Every day I hear about the following. "The company had record profits, but did not meet the expectations of Wall Street Analysts."

My question is: "Who died and left these punks boss?"

Wolf

[DJ13]

1. They're not analysts, they dont actually analyze

Think of them as carnival barkers trying to lure the dirty unwashed masses inside the tent known as the NYSE and it will make sense.

[Gin]

2. a while back I listened to analysts on TV say that "they" set wall street

projections....then... the companies have to jump through hoops to meet them....

[Common Sense Party]

3. I respectfully disagree.

Analysts analyze--and buy lots of other research from other analysts and then analyze that.

Then the analysts write their reports for their brokerage firm employers and issue a buy, sell or hold report (during the 1990s bubble heyday, 90%+ of their recommendations were "buy").

Then the retail stockbrokers go after the unwashed masses. The institutional brokers go after the pension funds, mutual funds, insurance companies, etc.

[DJ13]

5. That was the system in place before the algorithms took over

With 70% of todays trades being done based on mathematical formulas that ignore T/A almost entirely the analysts dont really have as much say in formulating investment plans for the major brokerages that they once had.

In many situations they are reduced to being a sales person now.

[Turbineguy]

4. Just be glad they will not

be working on the next plane you'll be flying on.

[cbdo2007]

6. All I know....is that if you read any stock book out there on how to choose stocks...

they all say, "Don't listen to Wall Street analysts."

Basically, they are people at the large investment firms who are trying to find relatively safe, yet somewhat profitable companies for them to suggest for their clients. Therefore they are should not be trusted because you never know the *real* reason they want you to buy X stock.