What happened
The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 are both off to a strong start this week, but investors seem especially enthusiastic about shares of solar powerhouse Enphase Energy (ENPH 0.62%). An analyst's bullish take on the stock is adding to other recent optimism from Wall Street, and investors are clicking the buy button in response.
As of 11:31 a.m. ET, shares of Enphase Energy are up 5.5%.
So what
Espousing a bullish position on shares of Enphase Energy, Pavel Molchanov, an analyst at Raymond James, upgraded the stock to outperform and assigned a $225 price target. With Enphase Energy's stock closing at $183.64, Molchanov's price target implies upside of about 22.5%.
The stock's upgrade today extends a streak of other analysts' positive outlooks on the stock. On March 9, Vikram Bagri, an analyst at Citigroup, raised the price target on Enphase's stock to $285 from $205, maintaining a buy rating, and on March 2, Tristan Richardson, an analyst at Scotiabank, initiated coverage on the stock with an outperform rating and a $300 price target.
Now what
While Molchanov's price target is worth noting -- as well as the price targets of other analysts -- investors must exercise caution when learning of these bullish price targets. Analysts often use shorter investing horizons when assigning price targets than the long-term holding periods that we favor. Therefore, those on Main Street should take Wall Street's musings with a grain of salt.
That being said, shares of Enphase have a more attractive price tag than that which they usually sport. The solar stock is trading at 34.1 times forward earnings, representing a discount to its five-year average forward earnings multiple of 67.7.
