CFRA's chief investment strategist, Sam Stovall, on Thursday told clients the market is likely to continue its uptrend this year, leading him to increase his year-end price target for the to 2,460, implying a gain of more than 3 percent from here.
"This new target incorporates CFRA equity analysts' bottom-up 12-month target prices for stocks in the S&P 500, reflecting their 2017 views on valuation after the just-completed Q4 [fourth quarter] 2016 EPS reporting period, combined with a macro, top-down forecast," Stovall wrote in a research note.
The increase comes a day after Savita Subramanian, equity strategist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, boosted her year-end price target to 2,450 from 2,300, implying a gain of about 3 percent from here.
Wall Street strategists are raising their targets in response to a rally that's already met their consensus target for the year, which stands at 2,380 or about where the S&P closed on Thursday.
