This week's screen highlighted five stocks trading well below where analysts say they should be. The reasons vary: some companies are recovering faster than the market expects, while others are simply being overlooked. Using Price Target Summary Bulk API, this article will walk through how that data surfaces these gaps and why the spreads might matter now.

Five Stocks Where Consensus and Price Diverge

International Flavors & Fragrances (NYSE: IFF)

Current Price: $65.91 • Average Target (Last Quarter): $76.67 • Upside Potential: +16.33%

IFF's spread looks less like blue-sky optimism and more like a “clean-up and refocus” rerating that hasn't fully filtered into the tape. The company has been pruning its portfolio (e.g., Pharma Solutions divestiture slated to close in 1H25), a constructive step for balance-sheet repair and mix quality that typically compresses discount rates as execution becomes observable.

Near term, the headline risk is legal overhang: IFF agreed to a $26M settlement to resolve parts of the U.S. fragrance pricing lawsuit—modest in size but a reminder that governance and legal clarity are part of the equity story. If additional settlements follow with limited cash impact, the market could begin to credit the simpler, lower-volatility profile embedded in the sell-side target.

AZZ Incorporated (NYSE: AZZ)

Current Price: $98.66 • Average Target (Last Quarter): $121.00 • Upside Potential: +22.64%

This gap maps to a classic industrials setup: durable demand for corrosion protection and coil coating colliding with limited new capacity. AZZ has been leaning into network density—most recently agreeing to acquire Canton Galvanizing in Ohio—while also resuming buybacks under a $100M authorization. Both dynamics support EPS compounding and multiple resilience if project momentum holds.

For a company with high fixed-cost leverage, throughput is everything: incremental tonnage and mix can drop disproportionately to EBITDA. If management sustains dividend growth and opportunistic repurchases alongside tuck-ins, consensus targets may prove conservative.

Dana Incorporated (NYSE: DAN)

Current Price: $19.88 • Average Target (Last Quarter): $23.25 • Upside Potential: +16.95%

The spread on Dana is about powertrain transition math, not a simple “EV slowdown” headline. Management recently raised FY25 guidance, signaling that cost work and program ramps are offsetting volume noise—exactly the kind of execution the market tends to underprice at inflection points.

At the same time, external chatter about footprint rationalization and EV demand variability keeps a lid on the multiple until margin traction is consistent. For the target to get “paid,” look for sequential EBITDA improvement and backlog conversion more than one-off news.

Unum Group (NYSE: UNM)

Current Price: $76.08 • Average Target (Last Quarter): $90.75 • Upside Potential: +19.28%

UNM's discount largely reflects investors treating peak ROE as cyclical. Yet Q2-25 prints showed sturdy premium growth, strong liquidity, and continued capital return, while the company maintained an ~21% adjusted operating ROE—evidence that earnings power is not just rate-beta but also underwriting discipline and expense control.

Catalysts are calendar-driven: with Q3-25 results slated for Nov. 3, any confirmation of stable loss trends and sustained buybacks could push the stock closer to the consensus line. The next data point is thus binary for the narrative—either the “peak” thesis softens, or the multiple stays anchored.

Summit Therapeutics (NASDAQGM: SMMT)

Current Price: $19.28 • Average Target (Last Quarter): $22.50 • Upside Potential: +16.70%

Summit's gap is all about binary drug-approval math around ivonescimab. The PFS signal remains encouraging, and the company has flagged plans to file in 2025; however, the recent miss on overall survival in a lung-cancer setting tempered expectations for an expedited path and injected uncertainty into probability-of-success assumptions.

With the stock volatile and capital needs a watch-item, any regulatory feedback or partnership clarity can swing modeled peak sales and, therefore, target prices. Keep an eye on trial updates and cash runway disclosures.

Interpreting What's Really Behind the Discount

Stepping back from the individual stories, the common thread across these five names isn't simply “cheap versus target.” It's the reason each discount exists. In some cases, the spread reflects execution that's improving faster than sentiment (IFF, UNM). In others, the market is waiting for decisive proof on margins, volume ramps, or regulatory clarity (AZZ, DAN, SMMT). That variety matters: wide gaps are only actionable when the underlying driver is both identifiable and likely to shift within a realistic time window.

The easiest way to separate conviction from coincidence is to pair analyst targets with forward-looking fundamentals. When price targets are compared against cash-flow trends from Financial Statements APIs, it becomes obvious which names are earning their way toward the consensus line versus those relying on optical valuation alone. Layering in leverage and liquidity datapoints from the Balance Sheet helps flag where capital intensity may limit upside even if revenue accelerates. These fundamentals reduce the risk of chasing a spread that never closes.

Timing is just as important as trajectory. Earnings cadence via the Earnings Calendar API can identify near-term catalysts that force model updates, while regulatory headlines or deal flow pulled from the Search Stock News API show whether the narrative is evolving or stuck. If target revisions tick higher while news tone improves, the odds of a gap-closure move increase. Conversely, stagnant models or negative incremental headlines are often early warnings that the spread is structural, not temporary.

As these signals evolve, the breadth of available datasets becomes part of the edge. Analysts often cycle between consensus targets, statement-level trends, and event calendars to confirm whether the narrative is tightening or drifting—and having a single entry point to that ecosystem, such as the FMP homepage, helps keep those workflows coherent rather than scattered across disconnected tools.

Building a Target-Gap Screen With FMP API

Rather than collecting these figures manually, the same screen can be built programmatically using a simple sequence of calls to core FMP endpoints. The workflow below mirrors how a research desk might standardize the process across coverage.

Step 1: Pull Analyst Price Targets

Start by hitting the Price Target Summary Bulk API, which delivers consolidated analyst target data for multiple tickers in a single response.

Endpoint:
https://financialmodelingprep.com/stable/price-target-summary-bulk?apikey=YOUR_API_KEY

Sample Response:

[

{

"symbol": "AAPL",

"lastQuarterCount": "12",

"lastQuarterAvgPriceTarget": "228.15",

"lastYearAvgPriceTarget": "205.34"

}

]

From that response, lastQuarterAvgPriceTarget is the key field — it reflects the most recent sentiment and should anchor your fair-value comparison.

Step 2: Retrieve Current Pricing

Next, fetch the live quote context by calling the Company Profile Data API for each symbol:
https://financialmodelingprep.com/stable/profile/AAPL?apikey=YOUR_API_KEY

Step 3: Calculate Upside Potential

With both pieces in hand, calculate the gap using:

Upside % = (Price Target - Current Price) / Current Price × 100

Expressing the spread as a percentage makes it easier to compare names of different sizes and price levels.

Step 4: Screen for High-Opportunity Stocks

Finally, filter for candidates above a predefined threshold—20% is a common starting point—while checking analyst coverage depth to avoid signals driven by thin estimates. Final filtering should include not only upside thresholds but also the substance of coverage—thin estimates often distort the signal.

Framing that signal correctly means understanding how valuation frameworks differ, such as in this article from FMP comparing relative and intrinsic approaches, which underscores how models must match the underlying asset and context. Adding context from earnings cadence or recent headlines helps you decide whether the discount has a plausible trigger to close or is simply static noise.

Scaling a Signal From Desk Insight to Firm Workflow

Running this screen on your own can surface compelling ideas, but the impact grows when the logic is absorbed into the broader research stack. When a standardized target-gap workflow feeds a shared dashboard, those valuation dislocations evolve from one-off curiosities into a persistent signal that PMs, risk, and sector teams can reference without recreating the analysis from scratch. The shift isn't about automating judgment—it's about aligning everyone on the same underlying assumptions.

Codifying inputs such as coverage minimums, refresh intervals, and how to treat stale targets turns a personal scan into a governed process. That governance matters: without it, version drift creeps in, fragmented spreadsheets multiply, and teams spend more time reconciling differences than interpreting the signal. Internal data advocates play a central role here. Once a desk demonstrates that a metric is useful, formalizing it prevents the workflow from living only in someone's head—or laptop.

At scale, firms need infrastructure that supports auditability, consistent rule application, and access to a single live dataset. This is where FMP's Enterprise plan naturally fits, enabling research groups to synchronize logic across desks while retaining transparency around changes. With that foundation in place, shifts in analyst consensus become less reactive headline fodder and more of a tracked indicator that integrates into real decision paths.

Watching Gaps for Signs of Sentiment Shift

When price-to-target spreads are tracked in real time with data from the FMP's Price Target Summary Bulk API and Company Profile Data API, they move from passive estimates to a signal you can actually monitor. The edge isn't in identifying the gap, but in recognizing the moment sentiment shifts and the spread begins to compress—often quietly, before the tape reflects it.

If you enjoyed this analysis, you'll also want to read: 5 Fresh Dividend Hikes This Week and How to Track Them with the FMP API