The yearly results for MERCK Kommanditgesellschaft auf Aktien (ETR:MRK) were released last week, making it a good time to revisit its performance. Revenues of €22b were in line with forecasts, although statutory earnings per share (EPS) came in below expectations at €7.65, missing estimates by 9.3%. 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.

Check out our latest analysis for MERCK Kommanditgesellschaft auf Aktien

Taking into account the latest results, the current consensus from MERCK Kommanditgesellschaft auf Aktien's 14 analysts is for revenues of €22.8b in 2023, which would reflect a modest 2.5% increase on its sales over the past 12 months. Yet prior to the latest earnings, the analysts had been anticipated revenues of €22.9b and earnings per share (EPS) of €8.69 in 2023. Overall, while the analysts have reconfirmed their revenue estimates, the consensus now no longer provides an EPS estimate, suggesting that the market believes revenue is more important after these latest results.

There's been no real change to the consensus price target of €209, with MERCK Kommanditgesellschaft auf Aktien seemingly executing in line with expectations. The consensus price target is just an average of individual analyst targets, so - it could be handy to see how wide the range of underlying estimates is. The most optimistic MERCK Kommanditgesellschaft auf Aktien analyst has a price target of €250 per share, while the most pessimistic values it at €158. 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.

Of course, another way to look at these forecasts is to place them into context against the industry itself. We would highlight that MERCK Kommanditgesellschaft auf Aktien's revenue growth is expected to slow, with the forecast 2.5% annualised growth rate until the end of 2023 being well below the historical 9.2% p.a. growth over the last five years. By way of comparison, the other companies in this industry with analyst coverage are forecast to grow their revenue at 3.4% per year. So it's pretty clear that, while revenue growth is expected to slow down, the wider industry is also expected to grow faster than MERCK Kommanditgesellschaft auf Aktien.