Avoid hindsight in a May 2025 stock list
A stock that looks attractive using today’s analyst targets may not have passed the same rules in May 2025. To reconstruct a May list, choose a decision timestamp within that month, retain the universe available then, and record each report’s original publication time. Do not replace a missing historical target with its current value.
Separate target gaps from realized returns
The previous description referred to a 15–20% target threshold. The implemented current screen uses a fixed minimum of 15%, not a variable monthly rule. A target of 120 against a price of 100 creates a 20% gap; it does not show that an investor earned 20% during May. A return study needs entry and exit dates, adjusted prices, dividends, costs, and delisted stocks.
How the separate current screen works
- Choose minimum market capitalization, sector, and reported volume. Defaults request more than $1 billion in market cap and more than 500,000 in the provider’s volume field. These thresholds do not certify liquidity, stability, or financial quality. No average-volume lookback is calculated here.
- Apply the screen. It evaluates at most the first 50 company-screener matches returned by Financial Modeling Prep, then requests quotes, grades consensus, and target consensus. This initial limit means the output is not the highest-ranked selection from every listed company.
- Keep rows whose provider consensus is Buy or Strong Buy and whose finite positive price and target imply a gap of at least 15%. Missing or failed analyst responses cannot qualify. The remaining rows are sorted by the gap, not by an independently measured probability of success.
- Read target gap as (target − price) / price × 100. A gap can widen because the price fell while the target stayed unchanged. Check the report date, forecast horizon, currency, and underlying assumptions before comparing rows.
What the result does and does not establish
The public screen requires no subscription. It requests data on opening and on Apply; it does not stream updates. The endpoints have different server caches, so the joined values need not describe the same moment. Strong Buy is a provider label, not an instruction to buy aggressively or a guarantee that multiple analysts agree on every assumption.
The table does not backtest May 2025, calculate a portfolio return, predict optimal entry points, or verify the business behind a rating. Review original research and filings, current bid–ask spreads, and portfolio exposure separately. A symbol link opens the quote lookup; enter the symbol there.
For the field definitions, see Financial Modeling Prep’s price target consensus documentation. The consensus target summarizes analyst forecasts; it is not a realized investment return.