
What Does Overweight Stock Mean?
- Overweight. A company’s stock can be given an overweight rating if its performance is better than the industry average.
- Underweight. A stock that has an underweight rating means it will generate a below-average return compared to the benchmark index being used for comparison.
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Is overweight stock a good buy?
1 analyst(s) recommend to Hold the stock while 0 suggest Overweight, and 3 recommend a Buy rating for it. 0 analyst(s) has rated the stock Underweight. 3 Tiny Stocks Primed to Explode The world's greatest investor — Warren Buffett — has a simple ...
When a stock is overweight?
When a financial analyst describes a stock as overweight, they believe it is positioned to outperform other stocks or the broader market over the next six to 12 months. Conversely, if they describe a stock as underweight, they believe that it will perform poorly in the future.
What is 'underweight' or 'overweight' in the market?
Typically an overweight/underweight designation refers to performance over the next 12 months. Overweight is a buy recommendation that analysts give to specific stocks. It means that they think the stock will do well over the next 12 months.
What is overweight in stock terms?
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- The other possible ratings are " underweight " and "equal weight", to indicate a particular stock's attractiveness.
- Portfolio Management What is the difference between passive and active asset management?
- Within the stock market, the term overweight can be used in two different contexts.

Does overweight mean buy or sell?
buy recommendationOverweight is a buy recommendation that analysts give to specific stocks. It means that they think the stock will do well over the next 12 months.
Is overweight bullish or bearish?
These types are further subdivided: Bullish: Strong buy, Buy, Overweight, Outperform, Add. Bearish: Sell, Underweight, Underperform, Reduce.
Is an underweight Stock good?
An Underweight stock rating indicates to investors that it may not be a good investment. In other words, if a stock is rated by Wall Street financial analysts as an Underweight stock, it is expected to have a lower return than other stocks in its market sector.
What is a good P E ratio?
So, what is a good PE ratio for a stock? A “good” P/E ratio isn't necessarily a high ratio or a low ratio on its own. The market average P/E ratio currently ranges from 20-25, so a higher PE above that could be considered bad, while a lower PE ratio could be considered better.
What does JP Morgan rating overweight mean?
Overweight. Expects stock to outperform average total return of stocks in analyst's or analyst's team's coverage universe over next 6-12 months. Neutral. Expects stock to perform in line with the average total return of stocks in analyst's o r analyst's team's coverage universe over next 6-12 months. Underweight.
Is it worse to be overweight or underweight?
People who are clinically underweight face an even higher risk for dying than obese individuals, the study shows. Compared to normal-weight folks, the excessively thin have nearly twice the risk of death, researchers concluded after reviewing more than 50 prior studies.
What does it mean when a stock is outperform?
Outperform: Also known as "moderate buy," "accumulate," and "overweight." Outperform is an analyst recommendation meaning a stock is expected to do slightly better than the market return.
What does it mean when a stock is neutral?
Neutral describes a position taken in a market that is neither bullish nor bearish. In other words, it is insensitive to the direction of the market's price.
What is overweight investment?
What Is Overweight? An overweight investment is an asset or industry sector that comprises a higher-than-normal percentage of a portfolio or an index.
What does it mean to be overweight?
Overweight is an outsized investment in a particular asset, asset type, or sector within a portfolio. Overweight, rather than equal weight or underweight, also reflects an analyst's opinion that a particular stock will outperform its sector average over the next eight to 12 months.
Why is it important to overweight a portfolio?
Another reason for overweighting a portfolio holding is to hedge or reduce the risk from another overweight position. Hedging involves taking an offsetting or opposite position to the related security. The most common method of hedging is through the derivative market .
What is a balanced portfolio?
Portfolio managers seek to create a balanced portfolio for each investor and personalize it for that individual's risk tolerance. A younger investor with a moderate appetite for risk, for example, might be best served by a portfolio that is 60% in stocks and 40% in bonds. If the same investor then opts to move 15% more of the balance into stocks, the portfolio would be classified as overweight stocks.
Why do active managed funds take overweight positions?
Actively managed funds or portfolios will take an overweight position in particular securities if doing so helps them to achieve greater returns. For example, the fund manager may raise a security's weight from its normal 15% of the portfolio to 25%, in an attempt to increase the returns of the overall portfolio.
What is the difference between equal weight and underweight?
The alternative weighting recommendations are equal weight or underweight. Equal weight implies that the security is expected to perform in line with the index, while underweight implies that the security is expected to lag the index in question.
Why are mutual funds weighted?
Mutual funds also are weighted, and some percentage of the fund may be devoted to cash or to interest-bearing bonds in order to reduce overall risk. This is why the performances even of index mutual funds may vary fractionally from each other and from the index itself.
What does it mean to be overweight in stocks?
For smaller stocks, however, it takes a substantial overweight position to have any significant influence at all on your returns. For the most part, an overweight rating indicates less about the literal meaning of giving a stock higher weight than a given benchmark. Instead, it's typically used as Wall Street jargon to indicate a positive attitude ...
What is overweight rating?
The S&P 500, and most other popular stock-market indexes, are weighted by market capitalization. This means that the stocks with the largest market caps have the highest weightings in the index, while those companies that have smaller market caps don't have as much influence in the benchmark. The individual stocks and their weightings are incorporated into the final index value.
What is the criticism of overweight ratings?
One criticism of overweight ratings is that they don't typically say exactly how much more you should add to a particular position. Again, with large positions, even a modest overweighting can have a dramatic impact on the return of your portfolio compared to a benchmark.
What is the weighting of the S&P 500?
For example, the largest company in the S&P 500 has a weighting of about 2.9%, which is far larger than the average 0.2% weighting for the 500 stocks in the index. Therefore, an overweight rating would add even more of a positive imbalance to that stock's already high weighting. By contrast, the smallest companies in the S&P 500 have weightings ...
What Is an Overweight Portfolio?
Overweight can refer to a portfolio that holds more of a stock or other investments than it theoretically should. For individual investors, this might mean that more of a portfolio is allocated to stock than the investor planned for.
What Does Overweight Mean to an Analyst?
Stock analysts research investments and make recommendations based on their findings.
Where Does This Weighting System Come From?
To understand weighting systems, it’s important to understand that market indexes assign a weight to the investments they track to be sure that they accurately reflect overall performance. For example, the S&P 500 tracks 500 large-cap US companies.
How Can Investors Interpret Overweight?
Investors looking at stock analysts’ overweight recommendations may want to carefully consider whether those recommendations fit with their financial plan.
The Takeaway
Learning financial terminology and financial strategies is a key step to growing as an investors. SoFi Invest® offers educational content as well as access to financial planners. The Active Investing platform lets investors choose from an array of stocks, ETFs or fractional shares.
What does it mean to be overweight in the stock market?
1. A rating of a stock by a financial analyst as better value for money than other stocks. The other possible ratings are " underweight " and "equal weight", to indicate a particular stock's attractiveness. 2) A judgement of an investment portfolio ...
What does it mean to be overweight?
Definition 1: If a particular stock is selling for $500 and the analyst feels that the stock is worth $600, the analyst would be declaring the stock to be overweight . Definition 2: Suppose that Technology stocks make up 10% of the relevant stock index by market value.
What is investment portfolio?
2) A judgement of an investment portfolio that it holds proportionately more than the benchmark weight of a certain asset (a share, bond, industry/sector, country, currency, or asset class, etc.).
Over weighted
An overweight rating could be given based on a benchmark index, such as the S&P 500, which includes 500 of the largest publicly traded companies in the United States.
Under Weighted
An underweight rating indicates that an equity analyst believes the stock price of the company will underperform the benchmark index used for comparison.
Weighted Equally
An equal weight rating indicates that an equity analyst believes the company’s stock price will perform similarly to or in line with the benchmark index being compared.
Price Targets and Overweight
Although an overweight rating technically means the stock should have a higher weighting in the underlying benchmark, market participants typically interpret it as a sign that the company is doing well and that the stock price should rise.
Overweight Ratings Criticisms
The fact that equity analysts do not provide specific guidance on how much of the stock should be purchased by investors is a criticism of overweight ratings.
Particular Points to Consider
It’s important to keep in mind that some equity analysts may consider an overweight rating to be a short-term trade.
An Overweight Rating as an Example
Because of positive earnings and raised guidance, analysts may give a stock an overweight rating.
What does it mean when an equity analyst recommends a stock as overweight?
Usually, if an equity analyst recommends a stock as overweight, he or she thinks that the stock will do well going forward and that it's worth buying right now. Source: istock.
What does it mean to be overweight?
Overweight is a buy rating that equity analysts give to certain stocks. It means that the analyst thinks that the stock will perform well over the next 12 months. The stock could grow in value or not lose as much value based on market conditions.
What does underweight recommendation mean?
In contrast, an underweight recommendation means the analyst thinks that the stock's future performance could be poor. It's a sell or don’t buy rating that the analyst gives to certain stocks. It means that the analyst thinks that the stock will perform poorly over the next 6–12 months. This can mean that the stock reduces in value ...
Is it good to be overweight in stocks?
This doesn’t mean that the stock needs to cut carbs and join a gym. In fact, being labeled “overweight” is actually good for a stock. However, overweight is certainly a confusing term. Most investors are used to seeing more straightforward buy or sell recommendations.
Why is a stock considered overweight?
Why Is a Stock Rated Overweight? A stock is rated an Overweight stock by analysts when they discover factors that augur good price performance over the next six to 12 months. The Overweight rating is given when the analyst thinks the stock will outperform other stocks in its market sector or those in a market index like the Standard and Poor’s 500.
Why do portfolio managers increase the weight of overweight stocks?
Portfolio managers may increase the weight of the Overweight stock in their portfolios in order to possibly earn excess returns. A stock given an Overweight rating is probably experiencing growing earnings. It also could be beating quarterly earnings expectations. There are a number of possible scenarios that could contribute to growing earnings.
What does an overweight rating mean?
Their opinion takes the form of a rating. An Overweight stock rating indicates to investors that it may be a good investment.
Why is the stock index so popular?
This index is popular because it is a widely held opinion that it may represent the overall market most accurately. Each stock in the index has a weight based on its market capitalization. When a stock is rated as Overweight, the analyst is effectively saying that the stock deserves a higher ranking in its index.
What does it mean to be overweight?
In a portfolio context, the word Overweight may be used if you have more of a specific stock in your portfolio than exists in the market index. If you own 20% of a stock that has a 6% weight in the market index, you are said to be overweight on the stock.
What is the stock market?
The stock market is represented by a number of market indices that track the performance of both the broad market and specific segments of the market. The choice of the right market index with which to compare a stock is crucial. Some indexes use weighting systems based on factors other than market capitalization. There are many market indices from which to choose representing nearly every possible classification of stock and market sector.
What is the rating system for securities?
There are two primary ratings systems for securities. There is a three-tier system and a five-tier system. The three-tiered system is the one that uses the Overweight rating. The other two tiers are Underweight and Equal Weight. The second system is a five-tiered system.
What does it mean to be overweight?
Overweight is a buy recommendation that analysts give to specific stocks. It means that they think the stock will do well over the next 12 months. This can mean increasing in value or just not losing as much value, depending on market conditions, but it always means that the analyst believes the stock will outperform its market.
What does it mean to be overweight and underweight?
Overweight and underweight are performance predictions. It’s an indication of how analysts think the stock will do in the foreseeable future. Typically an overweight/underweight designation refers to performance over the next 12 months.
What does it mean when a stock is underweight?
A stock that has an underweight rating means that an equity analyst believes the company's stock price will not perform as well as the benchmark index being used for comparison. In other words, an underweight stock rating means it will generate a below-average return compared to the benchmark. As a result, the stock deserves a lower weighting ...
What does overweight rating mean?
An overweight rating on a stock means that an equity analyst believes the company's stock price should perform better in the future. However, an analyst's rating needs to be taken into context with the investor's time horizon and risk tolerance.
What does equal weight mean in stock market?
A stock that has an equal weight rating means that an equity analyst believes the company's stock price will perform in line or similarly than the benchmark index being used for comparison.
What happens if the analyst is wrong and the stock price goes down?
If the analyst turns out to be wrong, and the stock price goes down, the investor stands to lose more money because there's an overexposure to one stock . The overweight rating provides a little guidance as to how specifically investors should go about purchasing the shares as it relates to their investment portfolio.
Why do analysts give stock ratings of underweight?
They can give performance ratings of underweight, overweight, or market perform to a security. If analysts give a stock an overweight rating, they expect the stock to outperform its industry in the market. Analysts may give a stock an overweight recommendation due to a steady stream of positive news, good earnings, and raised guidance.
What is a stock analyst?
Stock analysts are employed by investment firms whereby they are charged with evaluating the financial performance of a company. As a result of the analysis, the investment analyst makes a recommendation for the equity or stock, which is typically a buy, sell, or hold recommendation. However, the ratings that stock analysts provide are more ...
How long can a retiree hold a stock?
For example, a retiree might hold a stock for only a few months or years because it may need to be converted to cash at some point. A millennial, on the other hand, will have a much longer outlook or time horizon for holding that stock.

Three- and Five-Tier Rating Systems
Why The Reference to Weight Is Used
- You may hear “overweight” used in a different context, often relating to the makeup of an investment portfolio. In most cases, your portfolio should be made up of a diverse mix of stocks and other investments. You should try to avoid being too heavily invested in any one thing. When you have a good mix like this, it means that your portfolio is pro...
Ratings Are Just Guides
- For each stock, there will be countless people giving opinions on whether it’s a good investmentor not. Ratings are simply one piece that goes along with past price performance, earnings reports, profit margin, and other information. No one should ever buy or sell a stockbased on what one single person thinks. And this is especially true because analysts often disagree. Thus, trying to …