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It's been a pretty great week for NEXT plc (LON:NXT) shareholders, with its shares surging 12% to UK£110 in the week since its latest yearly results. It looks like the results were a bit of a negative overall. While revenues of UK£6.1b were in line with analyst predictions, statutory earnings were less than expected, missing estimates by 2.5% to hit UK£6.06 per share. 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 gathered the latest post-earnings forecasts to see what estimates suggest is in store for next year.
Following the latest results, NEXT's 14 analysts are now forecasting revenues of UK£6.34b in 2026. This would be a credible 3.6% improvement in revenue compared to the last 12 months. Statutory earnings per share are predicted to accumulate 7.6% to UK£6.78. Before this earnings report, the analysts had been forecasting revenues of UK£6.32b and earnings per share (EPS) of UK£6.74 in 2026. So it's pretty clear that, although the analysts have updated their estimates, there's been no major change in expectations for the business following the latest results.
Check out our latest analysis for NEXT
There were no changes to revenue or earnings estimates or the price target of UK£110, suggesting that the company has met expectations in its recent result. That's not the only conclusion we can draw from this data however, as some investors also like to consider the spread in estimates when evaluating analyst price targets. There are some variant perceptions on NEXT, with the most bullish analyst valuing it at UK£134 and the most bearish at UK£96.00 per share. 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.
These estimates are interesting, but it can be useful to paint some more broad strokes when seeing how forecasts compare, both to the NEXT's past performance and to peers in the same industry. It's pretty clear that there is an expectation that NEXT's revenue growth will slow down substantially, with revenues to the end of 2026 expected to display 3.6% growth on an annualised basis. This is compared to a historical growth rate of 10% over the past five years. Compare this against other companies (with analyst forecasts) in the industry, which are in aggregate expected to see revenue growth of 11% annually. Factoring in the forecast slowdown in growth, it seems obvious that NEXT is also expected to grow slower than other industry participants.