Stock-market strategists who were largely wrong about this year’s rally are finally starting to come to face their mistake, raising year-end targets for the S&P 500 Index.
Take Societe Generale’s Manish Kabra, who boosted his year-end target last week on the index from 4,300 to 4,750 — 25% above his original call of 3,800 heading into 2023. Or Piper Sandler’s Michael Kantrowitz and BNP Paribas' Greg Boutle, who at 3,225 and 3,400 had held the lowest targets among sell-side forecasters. They were cornered into lifting their 2023 outlooks in recent months just to keep up with this year’s 15.9% rally.
And then there’s Morgan Stanley’s Mike Wilson, a stalwart bear, who conceded in July that he was pessimistic for too long. Though he still sees U.S. stocks falling more than 10% before the year is out.