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As you might know, Costain Group PLC (LON:COST) recently reported its annual numbers. Costain Group reported UK£1.3b in revenue, roughly in line with analyst forecasts, although statutory earnings per share (EPS) of UK£0.11 beat expectations, being 3.9% higher than what the analysts expected. This is an important time for investors, as they can track a company's performance in its report, look at what experts are forecasting for next year, and see if there has been any change to expectations for the business. Readers will be glad to know we've aggregated the latest statutory forecasts to see whether the analysts have changed their mind on Costain Group after the latest results.
Check out our latest analysis for Costain Group
After the latest results, the consensus from Costain Group's five analysts is for revenues of UK£1.22b in 2025, which would reflect a measurable 2.5% decline in revenue compared to the last year of performance. Statutory earnings per share are predicted to leap 21% to UK£0.14. Yet prior to the latest earnings, the analysts had been anticipated revenues of UK£1.23b and earnings per share (EPS) of UK£0.14 in 2025. The consensus analysts don't seem to have seen anything in these results that would have changed their view on the business, given there's been no major change to their estimates.
With the analysts reconfirming their revenue and earnings forecasts, it's surprising to see that the price target rose 5.6% to UK£1.40. It looks as though they previously had some doubts over whether the business would live up to their expectations. It could also be instructive to look at the range of analyst estimates, to evaluate how different the outlier opinions are from the mean. Currently, the most bullish analyst values Costain Group at UK£1.87 per share, while the most bearish prices it at UK£1.05. 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.
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. We would highlight that revenue is expected to reverse, with a forecast 2.5% annualised decline to the end of 2025. That is a notable change from historical growth of 6.0% over the last five years. By contrast, our data suggests that other companies (with analyst coverage) in the same industry are forecast to see their revenue grow 5.1% annually for the foreseeable future. It's pretty clear that Costain Group's revenues are expected to perform substantially worse than the wider industry.