The stock market is made up of thousands of companies, and the larger and more popular companies receive analyst coverage. These analysts frantically cover a multitude of companies and generally issue price targets and recommendations on each. Today, we'll take a look at 17 analysts focused on Tesla Motors (TSLA 4.96%) in an attempt to gauge what the Street thinks of the company's stock.
Why should investors care about analysts?
For the most part investors shouldn't care about analysts' recommendations and price targets, as history has shown us they are far from accurate. This is largely a result of how analysts are compensated (interested parties can read more about this bizarre phenomenon here).
Even though Wall Street is notorious for being a very poor predictor of stock prices over the long term, that doesn't change the fact analysts' estimates have a large influence on stock prices in the short term. When Wall Street has extremely high or low expectations for a company's future, it can be advantageous for an investor to gauge how rational these expectations are before deciding to buy or sell stock.
What does Wall Street think about Tesla Motors then?
In the video below, Motley Fool analyst Blake Bos will take a close look at the 17 analysts covering Tesla Motors to see what they have to say about the company, and explain how investors should interpret the numerous Tesla stock recommendations.
