5 On-The-Money Stock Picks For Last Week From Benzinga's Most Accurate Analysts

US stocks closed mostly higher on Friday, with the Nasdaq gaining more than 100 points during the session.

Wall Street analysts make new stock picks on a daily basis. Unfortunately for investors, not all analysts have particularly impressive track records at predicting market movements. Even when it comes to one single stock, analyst ratings and price targets can vary widely, leaving investors confused about which analyst's opinion to trust.

Benzinga's Analyst Ratings API is a collection of the highest-quality stock ratings curated by the Benzinga news desk via direct partnerships with major sell-side banks. Benzinga displays overnight ratings changes on a daily basis three hours prior to the U.S. equity market opening. Data specialists at investment dashboard provider Toggle.ai recently uncovered that the analyst insights Benzinga Pro subscribers and Benzinga readers regularly receive can successfully be used as trading indicators to outperform the stock market.

Top Analyst Picks: Fortunately, any Benzinga reader can access the latest analyst ratings on the Analyst Stock Ratings page. One of the ways traders can sort through Benzinga's extensive database of analyst ratings is by analyst accuracy. Here's a look at the most recent stock picks from each of the five most accurate Wall Street analysts, according to Benzinga Analyst Stock Ratings.

Analyst: John Freeman

• Analyst Firm: Raymond James
• Ratings Accuracy: 93%
• Latest Rating: Maintained an Outperform rating on Vital Energy, Inc. VTLE on Jan. 26, 2023, and raised the price target from $63 to $68. Freeman sees around 19% increase in the company’s stock

Analyst: William Janela

• Analyst Firm: Credit Suisse
• Ratings Accuracy: 89%
• Latest Rating: Maintained a Neutral rating on Hess Corporation HES on Jan. 26, 2023, and raised the price target from $125 to $150. Janela predicts around 4% downside in the stock.

Analyst: Catherine Schulte

• Analyst Firm: Baird
• Ratings Accuracy: 88%
• Latest Rating: Reiterated an Outperform rating for Danaher Corporation DHR on Jan. 24, 2023, and raised the price target from $315 to $321. This analyst expects around 21% surge in the company’s stock.

Read More: 5 Cheapest Health Care Stocks You Should Think About

Analyst: Joseph Quatrochi

• Analyst Firm: Wells Fargo
• Ratings Accuracy: 86%
• Latest Rating: Maintained an Overweight rating on KLA Corporation KLAC on Jan. 27, 2023, and raised the price target from $420 to $455. Quatrochi sees the stock gaining around 14%.

Analyst: Zachary Fadem

• Analyst Firm: Wells Fargo
• Ratings Accuracy: 85%
• Latest Rating: Initiated coverage on Darden Restaurants, Inc. DRI with an Equal-Weight rating on Jan. 24, 2023, with a price target of $155. This analyst sees more than 4% gain in the stock.