This Analyst With 85% Accuracy Rate Sees Around 92% Upside In Micron - Here Are 5 Stock Picks For Last Week From Wall Street's Most Accurate Analysts

U.S. stocks settled higher on Friday, with the Dow Jones index settling at a record high during the session. The US Federal Reserve, on Wednesday, slashed interest rates by 50 basis points Wednesday at its September Federal Open Market Committee meeting, lowering the federal funds rate to a range of 4.75% to 5%.

All three major indices recorded weekly gains, with the S&P 500 gaining around 1.4% and adding more than 19% in 2024. The Dow gained around 1.6% last week, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq jumped around 1.5% during the week.

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: Zachary Fadem

• Analyst Firm: Wells Fargo
• Ratings Accuracy: 87%
• Latest Rating: Maintained an Equal-Weight rating on Darden Restaurants, Inc. DRI and raised the price target from $160 to $165 on Sept. 20. This analyst sees around 3% downside in the stock.
• Recent News: On Sept. 19, Darden Restaurants reported weaker-than-expected first-quarter financial results.

Analyst: Sam Reid

• Analyst Firm: Wells Fargo
• Ratings Accuracy: 85%
• Latest Rating: Maintained an Overweight rating on Ferguson Enterprises Inc. FERG and cut the price target from $250 to $225 on Sept. 18. This analyst sees around 13% upside in the stock.
• Recent News: On Sept. 17, the company reported net sales of $7.946 billion, which was 1.4% higher year over year, missing the consensus of $7.993 billion.

Analyst: Mark Hughes

• Analyst Firm: Truist Securities
• Ratings Accuracy: 85%
• Latest Rating: Maintained a Hold rating on Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. AJG and raised the price target from $265 to $275 on Sept. 20. This analyst sees around 0.4% downside in the stock.
• Recent News: On July 25, Arthur J. Gallagher reported better-than-expected second-quarter revenue results.

Analyst: Josh Sullivan

• Analyst Firm: Benchmark
• Ratings Accuracy: 85%
• Latest Rating: Reiterated a Buy rating on Intuitive Machines, Inc. LUNR with a price target of $10 on Sept. 18. This analyst sees more than 9% gain in the stock.
• Recent News: On Sept. 17, Intuitive Machines announced it was awarded a NASA Near Space Network contract for communication and navigation services, with a maximum potential value of $4.82 billion.

Analyst: Aaron Raker

• Analyst Firm: Wells Fargo
• Ratings Accuracy: 85%
• Latest Rating: Maintained an Overweight rating on Micron Technology, Inc. MU and cut the price target from $190 to $175 on Sept. 18. This analyst sees around 92% upside in the stock.
• Recent News: On Sept. 17, Micron announced the availability of the Crucial P310 2280 Gen4 NVMe solid-state drive (SSD) which expands Micron's P310 portfolio to address PCs, laptops and PlayStation 5. The company said a version with a heatsink will be released in the coming months, suited for use with PlayStation 5 and desktop gaming PCs.

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