While Fools should generally take the opinion of Wall Street with a grain of salt, it's not a bad idea to take a look at particularly stock-shaking analyst upgrades and downgrades -- just in case their reasoning behind the call makes sense.
What: Shares of Vail Resorts (MTN 1.04%) climbed 3% today after Credit Suisse upgraded the ski resort operator from neutral to outperform.
So what: Along with the upgrade, analyst Joel Simkins raised his price target to $81 (from $71), representing about 12% worth of upside to yesterday's close. While value investors might be turned off by Vail's steady share-price climb in 2013, Simkins believes there's more room to run given his outlook for a solid 2013-2014 ski season.
Now what: Credit Suisse sees several factors working in Vail's favor. "Upgrading to Outperform and raising target price to $81 as we see a number of reasons to be more constructive on MTN heading into the season," said Credit Suisse. "The company faces an easy weather comp as snowfall was disappointing in '12/'13, the high-end consumer outlook remains robust, and demand from international travelers could exceed expectations." With Vail shares up about 50% from their 52-week lows and trading at a forward P/E of 40, however, it's hard to believe that those positives aren't already baked into the valuation.
