Shareholders might have noticed that Flutter Entertainment plc (LON:FLTR) filed its half-year result this time last week. The early response was not positive, with shares down 5.4% to UK£143 in the past week. It looks like a credible result overall - although revenues of UK£4.8b were what the analysts expected, Flutter Entertainment surprised by delivering a (statutory) profit of UK£0.73 per share, an impressive 97% above what was forecast. 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. So we collected the latest post-earnings statutory consensus estimates to see what could be in store for next year.

See our latest analysis for Flutter Entertainment

After the latest results, the 25 analysts covering Flutter Entertainment are now predicting revenues of UK£9.63b in 2023. If met, this would reflect a reasonable 5.6% improvement in revenue compared to the last 12 months. Earnings are expected to improve, with Flutter Entertainment forecast to report a statutory profit of UK£0.87 per share. Yet prior to the latest earnings, the analysts had been anticipated revenues of UK£9.58b and earnings per share (EPS) of UK£1.11 in 2023. The analysts seem to have become more bearish following the latest results. While there were no changes to revenue forecasts, there was a large cut to EPS estimates.

It might be a surprise to learn that the consensus price target was broadly unchanged at UK£177, with the analysts clearly implying that the forecast decline in earnings is not expected to have much of an impact on valuation. There's another way to think about price targets though, and that's to look at the range of price targets put forward by analysts, because a wide range of estimates could suggest a diverse view on possible outcomes for the business. The most optimistic Flutter Entertainment analyst has a price target of UK£199 per share, while the most pessimistic values it at UK£131. This shows there is still a bit of diversity in estimates, but analysts don't appear to be totally split on the stock as though it might be a success or failure situation.

Another way we can view these estimates is in the context of the bigger picture, such as how the forecasts stack up against past performance, and whether forecasts are more or less bullish relative to other companies in the industry. We would highlight that Flutter Entertainment's revenue growth is expected to slow, with the forecast 12% annualised growth rate until the end of 2023 being well below the historical 34% p.a. growth over the last five years. Juxtapose this against the other companies in the industry with analyst coverage, which are forecast to grow their revenues (in aggregate) 7.9% per year. Even after the forecast slowdown in growth, it seems obvious that Flutter Entertainment is also expected to grow faster than the wider industry.