In This Article:
It's been a good week for Akzo Nobel N.V. (AMS:AKZA) shareholders, because the company has just released its latest full-year results, and the shares gained 2.5% to €59.52. Revenues were in line with forecasts, at €11b, although statutory earnings per share came in 12% below what the analysts expected, at €3.17 per share. The analysts typically update their forecasts at each earnings report, and we can judge from their estimates whether their view of the company has changed or if there are any new concerns to be aware of. Readers will be glad to know we've aggregated the latest statutory forecasts to see whether the analysts have changed their mind on Akzo Nobel after the latest results.
View our latest analysis for Akzo Nobel
Taking into account the latest results, the most recent consensus for Akzo Nobel from 18 analysts is for revenues of €11.0b in 2025. If met, it would imply a credible 2.3% increase on its revenue over the past 12 months. Per-share earnings are expected to expand 16% to €3.68. In the lead-up to this report, the analysts had been modelling revenues of €11.0b and earnings per share (EPS) of €3.98 in 2025. So it looks like there's been a small decline in overall sentiment after the recent results - there's been no major change to revenue estimates, but the analysts did make a small dip in their earnings per share forecasts.
The consensus price target held steady at €70.47, with the analysts seemingly voting that their lower forecast earnings are not expected to lead to a lower stock price in the foreseeable future. It could also be instructive to look at the range of analyst estimates, to evaluate how different the outlier opinions are from the mean. The most optimistic Akzo Nobel analyst has a price target of €85.00 per share, while the most pessimistic values it at €57.00. As you can see, analysts are not all in agreement on the stock's future, but the range of estimates is still reasonably narrow, which could suggest that the outcome is not totally unpredictable.
Looking at the bigger picture now, one of the ways we can make sense of these forecasts is to see how they measure up against both past performance and industry growth estimates. It's pretty clear that there is an expectation that Akzo Nobel's revenue growth will slow down substantially, with revenues to the end of 2025 expected to display 2.3% growth on an annualised basis. This is compared to a historical growth rate of 5.0% 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 4.3% per year. Factoring in the forecast slowdown in growth, it seems obvious that Akzo Nobel is also expected to grow slower than other industry participants.