"Goldman Raises Target on General Electric"; "Morgan Stanley Believes 2011 Will Be A Strong Year" (GE)

Since the December 17 target raise by Barclay's, from $20 to $22 I am reminded of a line by the Wall Street Journal's Tim Annett: "Like a gang of clowns in a pie shop...".* The herding behavior continued on January 6 with a move by JPMorgan, raising their price target from $20 to $22.

Today the big banks seem to be taking an interest in the behemoth that is GE, with Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Citi joining the rush.
From StreetInsider:
Goldman Sachs raised estimates and their price target on General Electric (NYSE: GE) to $21 following results last week. The firm reiterated their Buy rating....MORE
From SmartTrend:

Morgan Stanley Believes 2011 Will Be A Strong Year For General Electric on Improving Trends

And:

Citigroup Raises General Electric Target Price to $17, Boosts Estimates

See also: "General Electric Earnings: Five Analyst Takeaways (GE)"

*From our September 27 '07 (12 days before the market's all time high) post:

Climateer "Line of the Day" and Day Trading Hot Chinese Alt-Energy (What could possibly go wrong?)

Speaking of the WSJ's Blog Empire (see below), Tim Annett posting at MarketBeat was yesterday's winner with a walk-off home run*:

Like a gang of clowns in a pie shop, Wall Street brokerages had a merry old time slapping one another with various downgrades, earnings-estimate parings and price-target reductions in the lead-up to their recent earnings announcements.

*From Wikipedia:

In baseball, a walk-off home run is a home run which ends the game. It must be a home run that gives the home team the lead in the bottom of the final inning of the game — either the ninth inning, or any extra inning, or any other regularly scheduled final inning. It is called a "walk-off" home run because the teams walk off the field immediately afterward.

Also at MarketBeat (Pre-market this time) David Gaffen had this:

The most actively traded stock in premarket action — and one that’s fast becoming a favorite of day-traders — was China BAK Battery, which was up 24%, yet without any real news at all. Monday, the stock was added to Nasdaq’s “Clean Edge” index, which highlights companies that use clean energy methods, but it’s hard to see how that warrants today’s gain (and yesterday’s 40% increase).

Alright you Mo-mo Mama's, belly up to the keyboard.