Is Itron (ITRI) a Buy as Wall Street Analysts Look Optimistic?

The article examines the reliability of Wall Street analyst recommendations versus Zacks Rank for stock selection. Using Itron (ITRI) as an example with a Buy-equivalent average brokerage recommendation (ABR) of 1.45, the piece argues that brokerage recommendations suffer from positive bias due to institutional conflicts of interest. In contrast, Zacks Rank, which is based on earnings estimate revisions, has demonstrated superior predictive power for near-term stock price movements. Itron received a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) rating based on recent earnings estimate revisions.