TrendSpider offers the Analyst Estimate widget to help traders in collecting the ratings and directional recommendations produced by the Analysts for determining the performance of a stock during a given time period.
Analysts are individuals, investment banks, or financial services companies who probe into the affairs of a company by analyzing the financial statements, interacting with the management, and researching the competitors to produce the ratings and recommendations on whether the trader should buy, or sell, or hold the stocks.
Analyst ratings are important to traders because they tend to move the market on the day they’re issued. While research suggests that analysts have a mixed track record, reinforcements to existing Buy and Sell recommendations tend to be more accurate. Traders can also use analyst ratings as a contrarian indicator or to fade the initial jump in price.
TrendSpider retrieves analyst ratings from Benzinga (for U.S Stocks only), which collects ratings and recommendations from all major sell-side analysts ⚡
In this documentation, we will explore how to:
- Add Analyst Estimates Widget
- Use Analyst Estimates Chart
- Use Summary Table
- Use Reports List
- Use Analyst Estimates with Other Parts of TrendSpider
Let’s get started 🚀
Add Analyst Widget
Step 1: Sign in to your TrendSpider account and navigate to the right side of the interface to select the Analyst Estimates widget from the list.
Step 2: Click on the “Analysts” sidebar widget.
Step 3: Click on the “Add to the Sidebar” option to add the Analyst Estimates widget.
The Analyst Estimates widget will be added in the sidebar column as can be observed below.
Use Analyst Estimates Chart
The chart area in the Analyst Widget provides a visualization of analyst reports, which makes it easy to track the changes in the market sentiment over time.
Each row in the chart represents a single analyst’s reports over time with the most recent reports on the left.
The rectangles in each row are shaded with different colors to represent the analyst’s sentiment at various points in time.
| COLOR | INTERPRETATION |
|---|---|
| Dark Green | Represents a new report either reiterating or initiating coverage with a BUY rating |
| Light Green | Represents a current BUY rating that has not changed |
| Dark Gray | Represents a new report either reiterating or initiating coverage with a HOLD rating |
| Light Gray | Represents a current HOLD rating that has not changed |
| Dark Red | Represents a new report either reiterating or initiating coverage with a SELL rating |
| Light Red | Represents a current SELL rating that has not changed |
Let’s understand how to interpret “overall analyst estimates” & “estimates generated by a specific analyst” using the examples below.
The illustration below reflects the overall Analyst Estimates on DOW where:
1. The analysts have generated a Sell rating
2. The analysts have generated a Hold rating
3. The analysts have generated a Buy rating
The illustration below reflects the report generated by a specific analyst i.e. Morgan Stanley on CAT where:
1. The analysts confirmed a Buy rating nine months ago
2. A week later, the analysts released a report changing their ranking to Hold
3. A week later, the analysts reaffirmed their Hold rating
4. Analysts didn’t release a new report for six weeks and then reaffirmed their Hold rating again
5. There were a few Hold confirmations over the next 16 weeks before a Sell rating was issued eight weeks ago
TrendSpider automatically categorizes different ratings indicated by analysts into Buy, Sell or Hold. The list below is exhaustive:
| Analysts Indications | TrendSpider Interpretation |
|---|---|
| Sell, Strong Sell, Underperform, Moderate Sell, Weak Hold, Underweight, Reduce, Negative, Sector Underperform, Below Average, Market Underperform, Trim, Underperformer, Conviction Sell, Cautious | SELL |
| Hold, Neutral, Market Perform, Equal Weight, Sector Perform, Sector Weight, In-Line, Perform, Peer Perform, Fair Value, Suspends, Hold Neutral, Average, Mixed, Market Weight Average. | HOLD |
| Outperform, Moderate Buy, Accumulate, Overweight, Add, Market Outperform, Positive, Long-term Buy, Buy, Strong Buy, Above Average, Sector Outperform, Top Pick, Outperformer, Conviction Buy. | BUY |
You can also browse Analyst Estimates on your charts to see how the price action reacts or does not react to Analysts' reports emerging by clicking on the adjoining (⋮) vertical ellipsis of “Other Data” on the toolbar and selecting Analyst Estimates from the dropdown.
Please ensure that the “Other Data” is toggled on.
Use Summary Table
The summary table provides more detailed insights into analyst ratings over time.
For example, the table below shows 8 Buy ratings over the past 13 weeks. You also can see that there were no reports for the last 2 weeks, and the most recent report (released within the last 4 weeks) ranked this asset as a Hold.
Use Reports List
The reports list shows a list of analyst reports with columns for date, the analyst name, and the rating that are chronologically ordered.
Let’s understand how to interpret “Reports List” using an example below where
- = means the analyst reiterated their previous rating.
- Triangle Up arrow (in green) means that the analyst upgraded the asset from their previous rating.
- Triangle Down arrow (in red) means that the analyst downgraded the asset from their previous rating.
All reports in the above example were released more than 4 weeks ago where:
- On 30th Jan 2023, BMO Capital reiterated (`=` character) on their rating of “Hold” for this asset.
- On 11th Jan 2023, Bank of America upgraded (triangle up) their rating of the asset to “Buy”, meaning that they used to hold a “Hold” rating earlier.
- On 17th Jan 2023, Fermium Research downgraded (triangle down) their rating of the asset to “Hold”, meaning that they used to hold a “Buy” rating earlier.
You can also mark specific or multiple analysts as your favorite from the list by clicking on the adjoining star ★ icon. If an analyst is marked as a favorite, then you will view the reports produced by such an analyst on the topmost layer of the Analyst Estimates Chart.
Use Analyst Estimates with Other Parts of TrendSpider
You can use Analyst Estimates with other parts of TrendSpider as outlined below.
Scripts
You can use Analyst Estimates data in your scripts, which means that you can merge Analyst-related criteria with technical criteria. For more information, please refer to the documentation on Scripts.
Market Scanner
You can use Analyst Estimates reports in Market Scanner by defining a set of technical criteria. For more information, please refer to the documentation on Market Scanner
Smart Checklist
You can add the Analyst Estimates report in the Smart checklist. For more information, please refer to the documentation on Smart Checklist.
Strategy Tester
You can use Analyst Estimates reports in the Strategy Tester by defining a set of technical criteria. For more information, please refer to the documentation Backtesting Events.