Broker recommendations can be a useful indicator when it comes to researching shares. Examining the average (sometimes called the ‘consensus’) rating among analysts can offer a guide to whether a share is worth buying or not. 

Take Provident Financial (LON:PFG) as an example. Shares in the company have risen by 1.03% over the past month and it’s currently trading at 254.6p. But what do its brokers think?

According to the consensus of analysts covering the stock, there could be reasons to believe the positive trend will continue. In terms of trading recommendations, Provident Financial currently has:

• 2 Buy recommendations
• 2 Hold recommendations
• 1 Sell recommendations

This indicates that analysts are generally positive about the outlook.

At its current price of 254.6p, shares in Provident Financial are trading at a discount of -33.7% to its 52 week high price. The 1-year performance of the shares has been -4.07%.

While analyst forecasts can be a useful guide to what City ‘experts’ think about a stock’s near term future, they can be unreliable. To get a better idea about the strengths and weaknesses of Provident Financial it’s worth doing some investigation yourself. Indeed, we’ve identified some areas of concern with Provident Financial that you can find out about here.