What are analyst opinions really worth and do they help to make a decision? Below are actual analyst ratings for a stock I will reveal in the comments for this post. Judging by these numbers alone, what would you say the stock is worth?

As you can see, opinions vary wildly. Yahoo usually evens out all these estimate, and shows a “1y Target Estimate”, which is $6.83 in this case.

So… pick a number, then click to see if you guessed.

22-Aug-08 Reiterated Wedbush Morgan Hold $10 -> $6
22-Aug-08 Downgrade Roth Capital Buy -> Hold $11 -> $5
22-Aug-08 Downgrade Robert W. Baird Outperform -> Neutral $13 -> $8
22-Aug-08 Downgrade Friedman Billings Outperform -> Mkt Perform $10 -> $6
22-Aug-08 Downgrade DA Davidson Buy -> Neutral $14 -> $6
22-Aug-08 Downgrade BB&T Capital Mkts Buy -> Hold
08-Aug-08 Reiterated Wedbush Morgan Hold $11 -> $10
31-Jul-08 Reiterated Roth Capital Buy $13 -> $11
30-Jul-08 Initiated Pali Research Buy $10
23-May-08 Reiterated Wedbush Morgan Hold $12 -> $11
23-May-08 Reiterated Roth Capital Buy $14 -> $13
23-May-08 Reiterated Friedman Billings Outperform $15 -> $14
23-May-08 Downgrade Piper Jaffray Buy -> Neutral
12-May-08 Downgrade Citigroup Buy -> Sell $14.50 -> $9
09-May-08 Reiterated Friedman Billings Outperform $16 -> $15
08-Apr-08 Upgrade Wachovia Mkt Perform -> Outperform
14-Mar-08 Reiterated Friedman Billings Outperform $15 -> $16
18-Jan-08 Reiterated Friedman Billings Outperform $19 -> $15
11-Jan-08 Reiterated Wedbush Morgan Hold $16 -> $14
11-Jan-08 Reiterated Caris & Company Below Average $12 -> $11
10-Jan-08 Reiterated Roth Capital Buy $17 -> $14