How AnaChart Ranks Analysts — Our Methodology Explained
AnaChart ranks stock analysts entirely on verified historical performance — not on reputation, firm prestige, media appearances, or follower counts. This page explains exactly how our ranking methodology works and why we built it this way.
The Core Problem with Analyst Consensus
The standard approach to using analyst data is to look at consensus — the average rating and average price target across all analysts covering a stock. The problem is that consensus treats every analyst equally, regardless of their track record. An analyst who has been wrong on a stock for three consecutive years carries the same weight in consensus as an analyst who has been right eight times out of ten.
AnaChart is built around a different premise: analyst track records vary enormously, the variation is persistent over time, and surfacing the most accurate analysts gives investors a meaningfully better signal than consensus alone. The full database of analyst price target data — 833,000+ records across 9,687 analysts — is available for direct warehouse access or as a one-time custom report.
What We Measure
We track three things for every analyst on every stock they cover:
Price target success rate — the percentage of price targets that were reached within the standard 12-month window. This is the most direct measure of whether an analyst’s specific numerical call was correct. We measure this at the stock level, so you can see not just how accurate an analyst is overall, but how accurate they have been on the specific ticker you care about.
Average return on successful calls — the average gain between the stock price at the time of the rating and the price target, for targets that were successfully reached. This distinguishes between analysts who set conservative targets that are easy to hit and analysts who identify larger upside moves.
Coverage consistency — how recently and how regularly the analyst has covered the stock. An analyst’s historical track record is most relevant when it is recent and covers multiple cycles. We weight recent accuracy more heavily than accuracy from five years ago.
What We Don’t Factor In
We deliberately exclude several factors that other platforms incorporate. We do not factor in analyst seniority, educational background, or firm prestige — these correlate weakly with actual accuracy at the stock level. We do not use analyst reputation scores or star ratings from third parties. We do not factor in the volume of media appearances or social media following. Only the verified track record on verified historical calls counts.
Stock-Level vs Overall Rankings
A critical feature of AnaChart’s approach is that we rank analysts at the stock level, not just overall. The best analyst overall covering 200 stocks may have a mediocre record on the specific stock you are researching. The analyst ranked 50th overall may have an exceptional record on that particular name. We surface both views so you can use the most relevant signal.
Using AnaChart Rankings in Practice
When you look up any ticker on AnaChart, you see each analyst’s current rating and price target alongside their historical success rate and average return on that specific stock. This lets you immediately assess whether the most bullish analyst has a history of being right — or a history of missing high. It also lets you identify when historically accurate analysts diverge from consensus, which is often the highest-signal situation.
Explore analyst rankings on AnaChart →
Frequently Asked Questions
How does AnaChart calculate an analyst’s accuracy?
AnaChart measures whether each analyst’s price targets were achieved within the 12-month window they set, tracked on a stock-by-stock basis. This produces a per-stock hit rate for each analyst — showing not just whether an analyst is generally good, but whether they’re specifically reliable on the stocks they cover.
Does AnaChart track ratings, price targets, or both?
Both. AnaChart records each analyst’s rating calls (Buy/Hold/Sell) and price targets, and tracks how accurate each specific call turned out to be over time. This gives you a complete picture of an analyst’s forecasting track record — not just their current stance.
Why track analysts by individual stock rather than overall?
An analyst might be excellent at covering semiconductor stocks but consistently wrong on energy stocks. A single overall accuracy score would obscure this specialization. By tracking per-stock accuracy, AnaChart reveals where each analyst’s real expertise lies — which is far more actionable than a blended average.
Need the underlying data? AnaChart’s custom analyst data reports let you query the full database directly — price target history, accuracy scores, broker comparisons, any ticker or analyst, any timeframe. One-time reports from $149, delivered as Excel the we aim to fulfil same day, up to 48 hours.
Related on AnaChart: browse the top performing analysts by sector, and compare platforms in AnaChart vs TipRanks.