At The Motley Fool, we poke plenty of fun at Wall Street
analysts and their endless cycle of upgrades, downgrades, and
"initiating coverage at neutral." So you might think we'd be
the last people to give virtual ink to such "news." And we
would be -- if that were all we were doing.
But in "This Just In," we don't simply tell you what the
analysts said. We'll also show you whether they know what
they're talking about. To help, we've enlisted
Motley Fool CAPS, our tool for rating stocks and analysts
alike. With CAPS, we track the long-term performance of Wall
Street's best and brightest -- and its worst and sorriest,
too.
And speaking of the best ...
Investors in
Wynn Resorts (Nasdaq: WYNN) were exchanging
high-fives and buying rounds o' drinks this morning. (Really,
guys? Isn't it a little early to be breaking out the Chivas?)
And what made 'em feel like high rollers? Simple -- their
shares were soaring far ahead of the rest of the market
Thursday morning, enjoying a bit of a delayed bounce now that
investors feel free to react to the bullish prognosis that
came from market maven
Oppenheimeron Wednesday.
Calling Wynn "the best capitalized casino company" in the
world, and pointing out that it was rapidly becoming the
cheapest as well, with shares down 21% in a month's trading,
Oppenheimer pulled the lever, ringing up an "outperform"
rating for Wynn. But should
youplace a side bet that Oppenheimer's right? That's
the question of the hour.
Let's go to the tape
I'm not at all certain that Oppenheimer
isright on this one. Now, I'll grant you that
Oppenheimer has made some amazing stock picks in its day. In
particular, the courageous decisions to back both
Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) and
Motorola (NYSE: MOT) in the depths of the
Great Recession earlier this year have paid off handsomely --
producing a double on Apple, while Motorola motored even
higher.
But consider Oppenheimer's record in the more relevant
hotels, restaurants, and leisure sector. Over the past
three years, Oppenheimer has made 21 affirmative buy/sell
recommendations in this space. Of these, fewer than 35% are
outperforming the market -- and even then, often just
barely:
Oppenheimer Says:
CAPS Says:
Oppenheimer's Picks Beating (Lagging)
S&P By:
Penn National (Nasdaq: PENN)
Outperform
**
<1 point
Ameristar Casinos
Outperform
**
(42 points) Continued... |