Celebrations may be in order for ProAssurance Corporation (NYSE:PRA) shareholders, with the analysts delivering a significant upgrade to their statutory estimates for the company. The consensus estimated revenue numbers rose, with their view now clearly much more bullish on the company's business prospects. The market seems to be pricing in some improvement in the business too, with the stock up 5.6% over the past week, closing at US$21.41. Could this big upgrade push the stock even higher?

Following the upgrade, the current consensus from ProAssurance's three analysts is for revenues of US$1.1b in 2021 which - if met - would reflect a huge 26% increase on its sales over the past 12 months. Before the latest update, the analysts were foreseeing US$973m of revenue in 2021. It looks like there's been a clear increase in optimism around ProAssurance, given the substantial gain in revenue forecasts.

View our latest analysis for ProAssurance

One way to get more context on these forecasts is to look at how they compare to both past performance, and how other companies in the same industry are performing. The analysts are definitely expecting ProAssurance's growth to accelerate, with the forecast 58% annualised growth to the end of 2021 ranking favourably alongside historical growth of 2.6% per annum over the past five years. Compare this with other companies in the same industry, which are forecast to grow their revenue 3.6% annually. Factoring in the forecast acceleration in revenue, it's pretty clear that ProAssurance is expected to grow much faster than its industry.

The Bottom Line

The most important thing to take away from this upgrade is that analysts lifted their revenue estimates for this year. They're also forecasting more rapid revenue growth than the wider market. Seeing the dramatic upgrade to this year's forecasts, it might be time to take another look at ProAssurance.

Unanswered questions? We have analyst estimates for ProAssurance going out to 2022, and you can see them free on our platform here.

Of course, seeing company management invest large sums of money in a stock can be just as useful as knowing whether analysts are upgrading their estimates. So you may also wish to search this free list of stocks that insiders are buying.

This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. 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.

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