I was surprised to see this announcement from Zach's Investment Research re: AAPL stock: "We maintain our Neutral rating on the stock and raise our price target to $354.” But AAPL is today trading only $10 lower than that at $344. Is Zach's expressing the opinion that they believe AAPL will only increase $10 (from $344 to $354) over next 12 months?
I understand that analysts:
- Revise their estimates continually throughout the year
- Probably have an incentive to forecast conservatively
I guess my question is: without explicit qualification to the contrary, are "price targets":
- 12-month forecasts
- no implication of time horizon implied whatsoever
- something else?
I'm just boggled if it's (2) because it means that firm's price targets are effectively useless for comparing one of their forecasts against another.
I'm hoping it's (1) because otherwise all these market forecasts are just dressed-up versions of stock fanbois sitting at a bar going, "Man, GOOG is totally going to $1000 one day!" That's inane w/o some rough time horizon so I can imply a CAGR.