One man is seen sitting on the Wall Street bull in front of the New York Stock Exchange Spencer Platt/Getty ImagesAccording to a report by the FT, bullish analyst sentiment has reached an 18-year high.Analysts were required to disclose possible conflicts of interest in order to pass the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act.Prior to 2002, less than half of all ratings were buy ratings. Around 60% of ratings now include buy signals.Check out more stories from Insider's business page.According to data from Morgan Stanley, the Financial Times has compiled, Wall Street analysts are expressing bullish sentiment at an almost two-decade high. This is despite the fact that equities markets continue their upward trend.This data includes the top 1,000 stocks listed in the United States and has "buy" ratings at levels never seen since 2002 when US law was amended to combat conflicts of interest for analysts.The 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act required that analysts disclose possible conflicts of interest. It also gave the SEC greater latitude to pursue conflicted analysts. Investment bank analysts were often incentivized to give positive ratings to companies whose stock they underwritten before the law.The post-2002 era saw a dip in buy ratings to below 50%. According to the Financial Times, this aggregate measure was slightly higher than 50% after the financial crisis.Buy signals, however, now account for around 60% of all ratings.These data are coming as markets continue reaching new highs. Some wonder if US equities is overbought. BlackRock, the largest asset manager in the world, downgraded US stocks from overweight to neutral in July. Instead, they shifted to European stocks as they believe there is more potential for growth.Strong corporate profits have supported the new highs in US stock markets. According to FactSet data cited to the FT, S&P listed firms are expected to report more than 60% year on year earnings growth for the second quarter.
