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Last week saw the newest second-quarter earnings release from WashTec AG (ETR:WSU), an important milestone in the company's journey to build a stronger business. WashTec missed revenue estimates by 2.7%, coming in at€119m, although statutory earnings per share (EPS) of €0.56 beat expectations, coming in 3.7% ahead of analyst estimates. 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. So we collected the latest post-earnings statutory consensus estimates to see what could be in store for next year.
View our latest analysis for WashTec
Following the latest results, WashTec's four analysts are now forecasting revenues of €482.4m in 2024. This would be a modest 3.3% improvement in revenue compared to the last 12 months. Statutory earnings per share are predicted to rise 3.0% to €2.19. In the lead-up to this report, the analysts had been modelling revenues of €493.5m and earnings per share (EPS) of €2.18 in 2024. So it looks like the analysts have become a bit less optimistic after the latest results announcement, with revenues expected to fall even as the company is supposed to maintain EPS.
The average price target was steady at €49.13even though revenue estimates declined; likely suggesting the analysts place a higher value on earnings. Fixating on a single price target can be unwise though, since the consensus target is effectively the average of analyst price targets. As a result, some investors like to look at the range of estimates to see if there are any diverging opinions on the company's valuation. There are some variant perceptions on WashTec, with the most bullish analyst valuing it at €53.00 and the most bearish at €43.00 per share. Even so, with a relatively close grouping of estimates, it looks like the analysts are quite confident in their valuations, suggesting WashTec is an easy business to forecast or the the analysts are all using similar assumptions.
Taking a look at the bigger picture now, one of the ways we can understand these forecasts is to see how they compare to both past performance and industry growth estimates. It's clear from the latest estimates that WashTec's rate of growth is expected to accelerate meaningfully, with the forecast 6.7% annualised revenue growth to the end of 2024 noticeably faster than its historical growth of 4.2% p.a. over the past five years. By contrast, our data suggests that other companies (with analyst coverage) in a similar industry are forecast to grow their revenue at 4.5% per year. Factoring in the forecast acceleration in revenue, it's pretty clear that WashTec is expected to grow much faster than its industry.