Hunting PLC (LON:HTG) missed earnings with its latest full-year results, disappointing overly-optimistic forecasters. It was a pretty negative result overall, with revenues of US$522m missing analyst predictions by 4.0%. Worse, the business reported a statutory loss of US$0.53 per share, much larger than the analysts had forecast prior to the result. Following the result, the analysts have updated their earnings model, and it would be good to know whether they think there's been a strong change in the company's prospects, or if it's business as usual. We've gathered the most recent statutory forecasts to see whether the analysts have changed their earnings models, following these results.

See our latest analysis for Hunting

Taking into account the latest results, the consensus forecast from Hunting's four analysts is for revenues of US$574.2m in 2022, which would reflect a solid 10% improvement in sales compared to the last 12 months. Hunting is also expected to turn profitable, with statutory earnings of US$0.059 per share. Yet prior to the latest earnings, the analysts had been anticipated revenues of US$619.0m and earnings per share (EPS) of US$0.054 in 2022. If anything, the analysts look to have become slightly more optimistic overall; while they decreased their revenue forecasts, EPS predictions increased and ultimately earnings are more important.

The average price target increased 9.1% to UK£2.74, with the analysts signalling that the improved earnings outlook is more important to the company's valuation than its revenue. 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. Currently, the most bullish analyst values Hunting at UK£3.30 per share, while the most bearish prices it at UK£1.98. There are definitely some different views on the stock, but the range of estimates is not wide enough as to imply that the situation is unforecastable, in our view.

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. One thing stands out from these estimates, which is that Hunting is forecast to grow faster in the future than it has in the past, with revenues expected to display 10% annualised growth until the end of 2022. If achieved, this would be a much better result than the 0.8% annual decline over the past five years. Compare this against analyst estimates for the broader industry, which suggest that (in aggregate) industry revenues are expected to grow 6.9% annually. Not only are Hunting's revenues expected to improve, it seems that the analysts are also expecting it to grow faster than the wider industry.