PKI Stock Hits New High on Goldman Nod

PerkinElmer just landed on Goldman Sachs' conviction list

The shares of diagnostics specialist PerkinElmer, Inc. (NYSE:PKI) are headed for their third day in the black, after landing on Goldman Sachs' conviction list earlier today. The brokerage firm also upgraded PKI to "buy" from "neutral," and lifted its price target to $115 from $92. Evercore ISI chimed in, too -- hiking its price target to $94 from $86. As a result, the security is up 2.4% at $102.14, fresh off a new all-time high of $102.87.

PKI stock has been traversing uncharted territory since last week when it popped north of the $98 level -- an area that marked a previous peak in early October. The equity has made an impressive rebound off its five-month lows in December, up roughly 42% since bottoming out below $72, with a boost from its 10-day and 30-day moving averages.

Despite this positive price action on the charts, analysts are still cautious. Prior to today, the security held only two "strong buy" ratings, compared to 10 tepid "holds." Plus, the consensus 12-month target price of $99.17 is below current levels, which could leave the door open for even more analysts to follow Goldman's lead.

Short sellers are still swarming PerkinElmer stock, too. Short interest rose 3.9% in the last reporting period. At the stock's average trading volume, it would take over seven days to cover all these bearish bets, leaving plenty of room for a short squeeze.