Help Glossary
Help Contents Evaluating Stocks

Analyst Opinions

Analyst opinions can help you better determine if a security may be investment-worthy and understand the potential for a company’s stock to increase or decrease in its value by evaluating its financial conditions, business environment, and management, as well as other factors. Fidelity offers analyst opinions from major firms, including Columbine Capital, Ford Equity, Ned Davis Research, Standard & Poor’s, Thomson Financial, and Zacks Investments, just to name a few.

There can be many different analyst opinions on a stock. How do you know whose opinion to follow? One way is to watch each firm’s historical performance. If that sounds like a lot of work, we have good news. Our newest enhancement, the Equity Summary Score by StarMine, does some of this work for you!

Equity Summary Score

The Equity Summary Score provides a consolidated view of the ratings from a number of independent research providers on Fidelity.com. Historically, the maximum number of providers has been between 10 and 12. However, some stocks are not rated by all research providers. Since the model uses a number of ratings to arrive at an Equity Summary Score, only stocks that have four or more firms rating them have an Equity Summary Score. It uses the providers’ relative, historical recommendation performance, along with other factors, to give you an aggregate, accuracy-weighted indication of the independent research firms’ stock sentiment.

This single stock score and associated sentiment is provided by StarMine, a division of Refinitiv focused primarily on building quantitative factor models for institutional investors. It is calculated by normalizing providers’ ratings distributions (making them more comparable) and weighting each provider’s rating in the final score based on historical accuracy. Equity Summary Scores for the 1,500 largest stocks by market capitalization are force ranked to help ensure a consistent ratings distribution. This means that there will be a diversity of scores provided by the model, thereby assisting investors in evaluating the largest stocks (in terms of capitalization), which typically make up the majority of Fidelity’s investors’ portfolios. Finally, smaller cap stocks are then slotted into this distribution without a force ranking, and may not exhibit the same balanced distribution. StarMine updates Equity Summary Scores daily based on the ratings provided to it by the independent research providers after the close of each trading day. A score is provided when there are 4 or more ratings available. Learn more by viewing the Understanding and Using the Equity Summary Score Methodology (PDF).

Equity Summary Score Firms

The first table on the page is a list of the independent research firms included in the Equity Summary Score. The standardized opinion and StarMine Relative Accuracy Score is provided for each firm. Click on the “?” icon for definitions.

The Equity Summary Score provided by StarMine is current as of the date specified. There may be differences between the Equity Summary Score analyst count and the number of underlying analysts listed. Due to the timing in receiving ratings changes into the Equity Summary Score model, the Equity Summary Score analyst count may lag the ratings count displayed by one or more days. There may also be analyst count variations for symbols with multiple share classes and ADRs. More details on Equity Summary Score calculation are included in the Understanding and Using the Equity Summary Score Methodology (PDF).

Performance / History

The Opinion History and Performance pages provide detailed information on the score and sentiment history for the last 12 months, where applicable, as well as the price-performance of that stock during the periods of time when the sentiment and equity score were at different levels. Clicking the box will overlay a price chart for stock.

Company Research Highlights® Report

Company Research Highlights Report compiles important, up-to-date information from third-party research providers. This generated report* is updated once each business day and once over the weekend. Report includes: key fundamental and technical data; environmental, social and governance (ESG) ratings; 3-year price performance chart; third-party analyst opinions; earnings estimates and earnings history; and industry comparisons.

*Generated reports are built dynamically when you select them. Reports may not be available for some symbols. Select the link to check availability.

All Opinions Table

This section provides a list of all available opinions for this stock on Fidelity.com. Columns are sortable. You will find:

Intraday Opinions

Opinions provided on this page are up to date as of the previous trading day. Opinion changes issued during the current trading day, if any, will be listed above the All Opinions table.

Reports

Research reports are available from firms Fidelity may distribute. Reports are in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format. To view a research report, click the report name or the PDF icon to the left of the report name. You must have the free Adobe Reader installed to view PDF files.

Research Firm Scorecard and Explore Research Firms

These scorecards show theoretical performance of independent research firm ratings over time, individually and in aggregate. They may help you to understand and compare the historical accuracy of recommendations.

Explore Research Firms may be useful to help you understand the varying objectives, styles, and approaches of the research that Fidelity offers.

What is Independent Research?

For the purposes of performance evaluation, Investars defines independent research as research produced by a firm that has no conflicts of interest in the following areas:

Research firms are also designated as independent if they have been selected to provide independent research to investors under the terms of the Global Research Analyst Settlement. In all cases, research firms must contact Investars and request that they be identified as independent, and they must agree to forward data to Investars directly. To determine whether a firm qualifies as independents, Investars reviews the firm on a quarterly basis, or when the firm begins to forward data to Investars.

Investars provides this service for the convenience of its clients only. Investors should conduct their own due-diligence to determine whether the research provided to them presents any conflicts of interest. Investors should also understand that identifying a firm as independent does not suggest that that firm provides good research. The quality of the research provided and how each firm resolves potential conflicts of interest is best evidenced in the firm’s track record.

Note: Analyst opinions are provided for educational purposes only and do not constitute advice, guidance or recommendations by Fidelity.

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