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It's been a mediocre week for Hunting PLC (LON:HTG) shareholders, with the stock dropping 11% to UK£2.96 in the week since its latest full-year results. Things were not great overall, with a surprise (statutory) loss of US$0.18 per share on revenues of US$1.0b, even though the analysts had been expecting a profit. Earnings are an important time for investors, as they can track a company's performance, look at what the analysts are forecasting for next year, and see if there's been a change in sentiment towards the company. With this in mind, we've gathered the latest statutory forecasts to see what the analysts are expecting for next year.
See our latest analysis for Hunting
Taking into account the latest results, the most recent consensus for Hunting from six analysts is for revenues of US$1.11b in 2025. If met, it would imply a modest 6.1% increase on its revenue over the past 12 months. Hunting is also expected to turn profitable, with statutory earnings of US$0.39 per share. In the lead-up to this report, the analysts had been modelling revenues of US$1.12b and earnings per share (EPS) of US$0.43 in 2025. The analysts seem to have become a little more negative on the business after the latest results, given the minor downgrade to their earnings per share numbers for next year.
It might be a surprise to learn that the consensus price target was broadly unchanged at UK£4.90, with the analysts clearly implying that the forecast decline in earnings is not expected to have much of an impact on valuation. That's not the only conclusion we can draw from this data however, as some investors also like to consider the spread in estimates when evaluating analyst price targets. There are some variant perceptions on Hunting, with the most bullish analyst valuing it at UK£6.00 and the most bearish at UK£4.00 per share. Analysts definitely have varying views on the business, but the spread of estimates is not wide enough in our view to suggest that extreme outcomes could await Hunting shareholders.
These estimates are interesting, but it can be useful to paint some more broad strokes when seeing how forecasts compare, both to the Hunting's past performance and to peers in the same industry. We can infer from the latest estimates that forecasts expect a continuation of Hunting'shistorical trends, as the 6.1% annualised revenue growth to the end of 2025 is roughly in line with the 7.2% annual growth over the past five years. By contrast, our data suggests that other companies (with analyst coverage) in a similar industry are forecast to see their revenues grow 3.7% per year. So although Hunting is expected to maintain its revenue growth rate, it's definitely expected to grow faster than the wider industry.