Wall Street analyst turnover: how long analysts keep publishing price targets

Wall Street analyst turnover is easy to underestimate. Of the 3,503 analysts in AnaChart’s records with at least 15 price targets, 35.6% have no target recorded in the twelve months to 1 October 2026.

On Apple, 111 of the 138 analysts who have ever set a target have none recorded on the stock in that year.

This study measures how long analysts keep publishing price targets, using a survival estimate that accounts for analysts who are still active. It doesn’t measure why anyone stopped. The records show when targets appear and when they stop appearing, and nothing more.

How long analysts keep publishing

We took every analyst whose first recorded price target came on or after 1 January 2013, the point where our coverage becomes dense, and who has at least 15 targets in total.

That’s 2,725 analysts. For each one we counted the years from their first recorded target to their last.

Not everyone has had ten years to show us anything. An analyst who started in 2021 can’t have a ten year record yet, and counting them as a failure to reach year ten would overstate attrition.

So the estimate treats anyone still publishing as still in progress at the date our data ends, and only counts an analyst as stopped once twelve months pass with no recorded target. This is a standard Kaplan-Meier survival estimate.

The curve stays high early on. One year after their first recorded target, an estimated 99.3% are still publishing, and 90.8% after three years.

At five years the estimate is 80.6%, at seven years 71.3% and at ten years 59.1%. Between year seven and year ten, about 17% of those still publishing at year seven stop.

“Analysts still being followed” means the number at risk: analysts whose record is long enough to be observed at that point. The estimate gets less precise as that number falls.

An earlier version of this study, published in July, reported 44.9% at ten years. That figure counted analysts who hadn’t yet had ten years of possible observation as if they had stopped, which pulled it down. The estimate above corrects for that.

Analysts with no recent target

The survival curve follows analysts from their start. A snapshot of everyone gives a second view. Of the 3,503 analysts with at least 15 recorded targets, 1,248, or 35.6%, have no target recorded in the twelve months to 1 October 2026.

That is a statement about our records, not about anyone’s job. An analyst with no recorded target may have retired, moved to a role that doesn’t publish targets, changed to a firm whose research we don’t capture, or simply paused coverage.

Share of the 3,503 analysts with at least 15 recorded price targets, by the time between their first and most recent recorded target. Many of these spans are still running, so this is an observed span, not a completed career.

The median observed span is 8.2 years. For analysts who are still publishing, that number keeps growing, so it isn’t a median career length.

Key takeaway: a firm’s record is partly made by analysts who have left. Check who is still publishing.

The same pattern on single stocks

Turnover shows up most plainly on the stocks with the longest coverage lists.

On Apple, 138 analysts have set at least one price target in our records, and 111 of them, 80%, have no Apple target recorded in the last twelve months. Of those 111, 69 have no target recorded on any stock in that period.

Amazon is at 82 of 131, Tesla 53 of 81 and Microsoft 73 of 117. Nvidia has the lowest share of the five, 43 of 88. A shorter coverage history would produce that pattern, though these counts alone don’t show the reason.

So most of the price target history on a megacap was written by analysts with no recent target on that stock. If that history is read as one firm’s view, it blends the work of people who are no longer publishing on the name.

The longest records still active

A small group has published targets for more than two decades and still does. Atif Malik’s first recorded target dates from November 1999 and Jeffrey Zekauskas’s from January 2001.

Analysts with a target in the last twelve months, ranked by the time between their first and most recent recorded target. Data through 1 October 2026.

Records this long are rare. 11.1% of analysts with at least 15 targets have an observed span of 15 years or more. Vivek Arya, for example, has 900 recorded targets across 60 stocks.

What the records can and can’t say about why

A target record shows when an analyst published and when they stopped. It doesn’t record why.

Several explanations are plausible: research budgets that shrank after European unbundling rules, moves to buy-side roles that don’t publish targets, promotions into management, and coverage reassigned when a sector falls out of favour.

We haven’t tested any of these here. They are possible explanations, and the survival curve fits more than one of them.

Why this matters for firm-level track records

Say a firm has covered a stock for fifteen years through four different analysts. A firm-level record blends all four into one number, including years of work by people who no longer publish on the stock.

That’s why AnaChart builds track records around the named analyst: on an analyst page, the record follows the person across firms.

We looked at this from another angle in why the analyst’s name matters, which compares analyst-level and firm-level records on the same stock.

How to read coverage with this in mind

Three checks follow from these numbers. First, look at when the analyst last published on the stock: a target from two years ago isn’t current coverage, whatever a summary page lists. Second, look at the size of the record.

The median analyst with at least 15 targets has 111 recorded events across 23 stocks, but across every analyst in our records the median is 17 events on 7 stocks, and a hit rate on five targets says little.

Third, judge the person on that stock.

On AnaChart, every analyst page shows how many of their targets on a stock were reached, how long that took and their performance score, which is 1000 × the implied move ÷ (issue price × days to reach), averaged across their targets on the stock, with unreached targets scoring zero.

Key takeaway: a hit rate on a handful of targets says little. Look at how many targets stand behind it.

How we measured this

Data. AnaChart’s price target and rating records through 1 October 2026: 755,738 analyst events. Analysts are consolidated to one canonical name, so a change of firm doesn’t split a record in two.

Population. Analysts with at least 15 recorded price targets: 3,503. Span is the time between an analyst’s first and most recent recorded price target.

Survival estimate. Kaplan-Meier, on the 2,725 qualifying analysts whose first recorded target came on or after 1 January 2013.

An analyst counts as stopped at their last recorded target if no target follows in the twelve months before 1 October 2026; 931 analysts meet that definition. Everyone else is treated as still publishing (censored) at 1 October 2026. Longest possible follow-up is 13.7 years.

Inactive. No recorded price target in the twelve months to 1 October 2026, on any stock or, for the single-stock figures, on that stock.

Limits. Requiring 15 targets leaves out analysts who stopped before reaching 15, which pushes the survival estimate up. An absence of recorded targets can’t distinguish a career change from a firm move, a coverage pause or a gap in our sources.

Records before 2013 are thinner, so analysts who started earlier are excluded from the survival estimate, and their first recorded target may be later than their real start.

Frequently asked questions

How long do Wall Street analysts keep publishing price targets?

Among analysts whose first recorded target came in 2013 or later and who have at least 15 targets, an estimated 80.6% were still publishing five years later and 59.1% ten years later. Atif Malik’s record runs from November 1999 and is still active.

How many analysts have stopped publishing price targets?

Of 3,503 analysts with at least 15 recorded targets, 1,248, or 35.6%, have no target recorded in the twelve months to 1 October 2026.

That doesn’t tell us whether they left research. On Apple, 111 of the 138 analysts who have set a target have none on the stock in that year.

Does it matter that the analyst covering my stock might stop?

It matters if you judge a call by the firm rather than the person. A firm-level record on Apple blends targets from 138 analysts, 111 of whom have no recent Apple target.

An analyst-level record such as Vivek Arya’s 900 targets across 60 stocks describes one person’s work.

Data through 1 October 2026. First published 28 July 2026, revised 5 October 2026 with a censoring-aware survival estimate and refreshed data.