Chevron Corporation (CVX), Apple, Netflix, Amazon: Did Analysts Get It Right?

It turns out that the price target forecast was moved even at the start of this year. Long set Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s price target at $133 in January, then at $116 in July, and at $140 in September. As for the actual stock value of Apple, the price fluctuated from $107.33 on December 21, 2015, the day of Long’s appearance on CNBC, to $90.34 on May 12, 2016, and then went up to $115 in December, with plenty of ups and downs along the way. In any case, Long’s price target, regardless of where it was, hasn’t been hit yet. As for iPhone sales, the tech giant sold 74.78 million iPhones in the fiscal 2016 first quarter ended December 26, 2015, the quarter that followed the launch of the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, up slightly from 74.47 million in the prior-year quarter. As for the most recent quarter, the fiscal 2016 fourth quarter ended September 24, which included the three weeks that followed the launch of the iPhone 7 and the iPhone 7 Plus, 45.51 million iPhones were sold, down from 48.05 million in the prior-year quarter.

Even CNBC itself can’t help but do some forecasts, based on previous trends for stocks. Take for example Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) and Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), the two best-performing stocks in the S&P 500 in 2015 with more than 100% growth for the year. CNBC projected that both stocks wouldn’t be able to repeat their 2015 performance because they have a history of showing muted or negative growth in the year that followed the breakout year.  For instance, Netflix shares fell by 7.21% in 2014 after exhibiting 297.63% growth in 2013. Netflix experienced 60.56% stock value decline in 2011 after a 218.93% growth in 2010.

CNBC was right on that one, Year to date, Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX)’s stock grew by 10%, while Amazon’s increased by 13.23%, compared with S&P 500’s 13.22% growth. It means that the top performers of 2015 are performing at or slightly below the average S&P 500 company. It is worth noting that Netflix and Amazon are part of FANG, an acronym coined by CNBC business pundit Jim Cramer that stands for the four best-performing tech stocks of the past few years, with F standing for Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) and G standing for Google. However, Cramer kicked Netflix out of that grouping in September 2016 and renamed FANG as FAAA, with the two other A’s standing for Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA), and Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL). Cramer went bearish on Netflix after two consecutive missed quarters and said that Amazon’s stock is problematic, although he credited the online retailing giant for disrupting the streaming company.

Disclosure: none