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LondonMetric Property Plc (LON:LMP) investors will be delighted, with the company turning in some strong numbers with its latest results. The company beat forecasts, with revenue of UK£178m, some 7.2% above estimates, and statutory earnings per share (EPS) coming in at UK£0.11, 108% ahead of expectations. 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. We thought readers would find it interesting to see the analysts latest (statutory) post-earnings forecasts for next year.
Check out our latest analysis for LondonMetric Property
Following the latest results, LondonMetric Property's six analysts are now forecasting revenues of UK£370.2m in 2025. This would be a substantial 108% improvement in revenue compared to the last 12 months. Statutory earnings per share are predicted to surge 166% to UK£0.15. Yet prior to the latest earnings, the analysts had been anticipated revenues of UK£364.6m and earnings per share (EPS) of UK£0.17 in 2025. The analysts seem to have become a little more negative on the business after the latest results, given the small dip in 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£2.23, with the analysts clearly implying that the forecast decline in earnings is not expected to have much of an impact on valuation. 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. The most optimistic LondonMetric Property analyst has a price target of UK£2.50 per share, while the most pessimistic values it at UK£1.86. Even so, with a relatively close grouping of estimates, it looks like the analysts are quite confident in their valuations, suggesting LondonMetric Property is an easy business to forecast or the the analysts are all using similar assumptions.
One way to get more context on these forecasts is to look at how they compare to both past performance, and how other companies in the same industry are performing. It's clear from the latest estimates that LondonMetric Property's rate of growth is expected to accelerate meaningfully, with the forecast 108% annualised revenue growth to the end of 2025 noticeably faster than its historical growth of 13% 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 0.9% per year. Factoring in the forecast acceleration in revenue, it's pretty clear that LondonMetric Property is expected to grow much faster than its industry.