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J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:JBHT) just released its latest quarterly results and things are looking bullish. It was overall a positive result, with revenues beating expectations by 5.8% to hit US$2.1b. J.B. Hunt Transport Services also reported a statutory profit of US$1.14, which was an impressive 34% above what the analysts had forecast. 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. So we collected the latest post-earnings statutory consensus estimates to see what could be in store for next year.

Check out our latest analysis for J.B. Hunt Transport Services

Following last week's earnings report, J.B. Hunt Transport Services' 19 analysts are forecasting 2020 revenues to be US$9.17b, approximately in line with the last 12 months. Per-share earnings are expected to accumulate 2.2% to US$4.71. Before this earnings report, the analysts had been forecasting revenues of US$8.88b and earnings per share (EPS) of US$4.16 in 2020. So it seems there's been a definite increase in optimism about J.B. Hunt Transport Services' future following the latest results, with a solid gain to the earnings per share forecasts in particular.

It will come as no surprise to learn that the analysts have increased their price target for J.B. Hunt Transport Services 16% to US$132on the back of these upgrades. 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. Currently, the most bullish analyst values J.B. Hunt Transport Services at US$155 per share, while the most bearish prices it at US$97.00. 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.

Of course, another way to look at these forecasts is to place them into context against the industry itself. These estimates imply that sales are expected to slow, with a forecast revenue decline of 0.7%, a significant reduction from annual growth of 10.0% 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 8.1% annually for the foreseeable future. So although its revenues are forecast to shrink, this cloud does not come with a silver lining - J.B. Hunt Transport Services is expected to lag the wider industry.