It's probably not that sinister (though it could be). From...

It's probably not that sinister (though it could be). From today's (!) Marcus Today :

"In Brief
Macquarie has cut Independence Group (IGO) to UNDERPERFORM - Evolution Mining (EVN) to NEUTRAL - Doray Minerals (DRM) to UNDERPERFORM – Beadell Resources (BDR) to NEUTRAL- St Barbara (SBM) to NEUTRAL on the massive price appreciation in the sector and revised currency forecasts."

Marcus Today also summarises lots of info about each stock, including analyst ratings and the average target price. The feed comes from Reuters, who cover eight analysts, with distribution (strong buy / buy / hold / sell / strong sell) 1/3/3/1/0, as of yesterday. I'm not sure if MQG's latest change is included in that (probably not). The average target price is $0.38, up from $0.34 on 28/6.

I get the impression that most of the analysts have been playing catch up to these gold stocks in recent months, and it's also unclear how many of the eight have actually revisited their spreadsheets between 28/6 and 19/7. Still, I assume each of these analysts has a spreadsheet similar to what binwood posted above, and wouldn't it be interesting to compare the different assumptions? (If only someone on HC was a paid-up client of one these brokers or investment banks!)

I agree they are a bit pathetic if they had an "outperform" rating on it if the target price was $0.40 when the SP was as high as the low 50s. I have another story that reminds me of how pathetic they can be - I'll post it separately for your amusement.