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Galena Biopharma Upgraded to Buy: Here's What You Should Know
Investors might want to bet on The Zacks rating relies solely on a company's changing earnings picture. It tracks EPS estimates for the current and following years from the sell-side analysts covering the stock through a consensus measure -- the Zacks Consensus Estimate. The power of a changing earnings picture in determining near-term stock price movements makes the Zacks rating system highly useful for individual investors, since it can be difficult to make decisions based on rating upgrades by Wall Street analysts. These are mostly driven by subjective factors that are hard to see and measure in real time. As such, the Zacks rating upgrade for Galena Biopharma is essentially a positive comment on its earnings outlook that could have a favorable impact on its stock price. The change in a company's future earnings potential, as reflected in earnings estimate revisions, has proven to be strongly correlated with the near-term price movement of its stock. The influence of institutional investors has a partial contribution to this relationship, as these big professionals use earnings and earnings estimates to calculate the fair value of a company's shares. An increase or decrease in earnings estimates in their valuation models simply results in higher or lower fair value for a stock, and institutional investors typically buy or sell it. Their bulk investment action then leads to price movement for the stock. For Galena Biopharma, rising earnings estimates and the consequent rating upgrade fundamentally mean an improvement in the company's underlying business. And investors' appreciation of this improving business trend should push the stock higher. As empirical research shows a strong correlation between trends in earnings estimate revisions and near-term stock movements, tracking such revisions for making an investment decision could be truly rewarding. Here is where the tried-and-tested Zacks Rank stock-rating system plays an important role, as it effectively harnesses the power of earnings estimate revisions. The Zacks Rank stock-rating system, which uses four factors related to earnings estimates to classify stocks into five groups, ranging from Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) to Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive externally-audited track record, with Zacks Rank #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. For the fiscal year ending December 2024, this company is expected to earn -$0.75 per share, which is a change of 44% from the year-ago reported number. Analysts have been steadily raising their estimates for Galena Biopharma. Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the company has increased 13.3%. Unlike the overly optimistic Wall Street analysts whose rating systems tend to be weighted toward favorable recommendations, the Zacks rating system maintains an equal proportion of 'buy' and 'sell' ratings for its entire universe of more than 4000 stocks at any point in time. Irrespective of market conditions, only the top 5% of the Zacks-covered stocks get a 'Strong Buy' rating and the next 15% get a 'Buy' rating. So, the placement of a stock in the top 20% of the Zacks-covered stocks indicates its superior earnings estimate revision feature, making it a solid candidate for producing market-beating returns in the near term. The upgrade of Galena Biopharma to a Zacks Rank #2 positions it in the top 20% of the Zacks-covered stocks in terms of estimate revisions, implying that the stock might move higher in the near term. To read this article on Zacks.com click here.
A top Wall Street bear has turned bullish on stocks, boosting his S&P 500 price target by 20%
A top bear on Wall Street just threw in the towel and turned bullish after a big rally in the stock market. Morgan Stanley's CIO Mike Wilson ditched his bearish call in a note on Sunday, increasing his 12-month S&P 500 price target by 20% to 5,400. Wilson had previously held a 4,500 price target on the S&P 500. The new bullish forecast from Wilson would represent fresh record highs for the benchmark index, marking potential upside of about 2% from current levels. "Our 2024 and 2025 earnings growth forecasts (8% and 13%, respectively) assume healthy, mid-single-digit top-line growth in addition to margin expansion in both years as positive operating leverage resumes," Wilson said. Wilson's base-case S&P 500 price target of 5,400 is derived from a 19x price-to-earnings multiple on 12-month forward earnings per share estimate of $283 by June 2026. Wilson said the stock market could surge an additional 20%, to 6,350 on the S&P 500 in his bull case scenario. That optimistic scenario would be driven by stronger earnings per share growth in the range of 11% to 15%, "driven by continued fiscal support and cyclical/structural drivers out to 2026 alongside multiple expansion to ~21x," Wilson explained. Wilson first turned bearish on US stocks in 2021, correctly warning of a potential 20% decline in the S&P 500. That decline quickly materialized just a few months later in 2022, but since then, the S&P 500 has rallied 52% from its October 2022 low, with Wilson fighting the rally throughout 2023 and the first few months of this year. With Wilson now in the bullish camp on stocks, that leaves JPMorgan's Dubravko Lakos-Bujas and Marko Kolanovic as one of the few bears left on Wall Street. JPMorgan maintains a year-end price target of 4,200 for the S&P 500, representing potential downside of 21% from current levels.
Japan's Nikkei reclaims 39,000 level for first time since April
TOKYO, May 20 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei share average rose more than 1% on Monday, hitting 39,000 points for the first time in a month as a record closing high on Wall Street continued to fuel positive investor sentiment. The Nikkei was 1.44% higher at 39,346.92 by the midday break, climbing to the psychologically significant 39,000-point range for the first time since April 15. The broader Topix was up 1.21% at 2778.89. Higher prospects of U.S. rate cuts this year after a milder inflation report last week buoyed global market sentiment and led several indexes on Wall Street to lock in weekly gains. That in turn has provided Japanese equities with a tailwind. "Stock prices have been supported as rate cut expectations are being revived," said Masahiro Ichikawa, chief market strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management. The Nikkei fell nearly 5% last month in its largest monthly drop since December 2022, following the benchmark index's rise to an all-time high of 41,087.75 earlier this year. On the back of those expectations, the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished above the 40,000 mark for the first time on Friday, which may be giving the Nikkei support on Monday, Ichikawa said. Buying was widespread, with 204 of the index's 225 constituents advancing, with high-tech shares and index heavyweights helping the Nikkei to 559.54-point gains. Uniqlo parent firm Fast Retailing was up 1.9%, adding about 77 points alone. Among chip-related shares, Shin-Etsu Chemical Co, which manufactures chip silicon products among other things, jumped 5.24%, and chip-making equipment giant Tokyo Electron gained 1.2%. Advantest, which counts Nvidia among its customers, was up 0.8% as investors looked ahead of U.S. firm's earnings results this week, which could provide fresh momentum for the artificial intelligence-centred stock rally. (Reporting by Brigid Riley; Editing by Sohini Goswami)
South Korea, UK to co-host second global AI summit as boom fans risks
South Korea and the United Kingdom will co-host the second global AI summit in Seoul this week, as the breathtaking pace of innovation since the first AI summit in November leaves governments scrambling to keep up with a growing array of risks.
