Growth Investors: Industry Analysts Just Upgraded Their Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) Revenue Forecasts By 3.9%
Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) shareholders will have a reason to smile today, with the analysts making substantial upgrades to this year's forecasts. The analysts have sharply increased their revenue numbers, with a view that Spire will make substantially more sales than they'd previously expected.
Following the latest upgrade, Spire's eight analysts currently expect revenues in 2024 to be US$2.6b, approximately in line with the last 12 months. Statutory earnings per share are presumed to swell 18% to US$4.35. Prior to this update, the analysts had been forecasting revenues of US$2.5b and earnings per share (EPS) of US$4.34 in 2024. There doesn't appear to have been a major change in analyst sentiment following this consensus update, other than the small lift in revenue estimates.
See our latest analysis for Spire
Even though revenue forecasts increased, there was no change to the consensus price target of US$62.88, suggesting the analysts are focused on earnings as the driver of value creation.
Taking a look at the bigger picture now, one of the ways we can understand these forecasts is to see how they compare to both past performance and industry growth estimates. It's pretty clear that there is an expectation that Spire's revenue growth will slow down substantially, with revenues to the end of 2024 expected to display 1.4% growth on an annualised basis. This is compared to a historical growth rate of 7.4% over the past five years. By way of comparison, the other companies in this industry with analyst coverage are forecast to grow their revenue at 5.2% per year. So it's pretty clear that, while revenue growth is expected to slow down, the wider industry is also expected to grow faster than Spire.
The Bottom Line
The most important thing to take away is that there's been no major change in sentiment, with analysts reconfirming that earnings per share are expected to continue performing in line with their prior expectations. Fortunately, they also upgraded their revenue estimates, and are forecasting revenues to grow slower than the wider market. Seeing the dramatic upgrade to this year's forecasts, it might be time to take another look at Spire.
Better yet, our automated discounted cash flow calculation (DCF) suggests Spire could be moderately undervalued. You can learn more about our valuation methodology on our platform here.
Another way to search for interesting companies that could be reaching an inflection point is to track whether management are buying or selling, with our free list of growing companies that insiders are buying.
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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
