A week ago, Apria, Inc. (NASDAQ:APR) came out with a strong set of second-quarter numbers that could potentially lead to a re-rate of the stock. The company beat both earnings and revenue forecasts, with revenue of US$286m, some 2.7% above estimates, and statutory earnings per share (EPS) coming in at US$0.54, 55% ahead of expectations. 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. We've gathered the most recent statutory forecasts to see whether the analysts have changed their earnings models, following these results.

Check out our latest analysis for Apria

Taking into account the latest results, Apria's four analysts currently expect revenues in 2021 to be US$1.14b, approximately in line with the last 12 months. Statutory earnings per share are forecast to dip 6.9% to US$1.50 in the same period. Yet prior to the latest earnings, the analysts had been anticipated revenues of US$1.13b and earnings per share (EPS) of US$1.20 in 2021. There was no real change to the revenue estimates, but the analysts do seem more bullish on earnings, given the great increase in earnings per share expectations following these results.

The consensus price target rose 7.9% to US$35.40, suggesting that higher earnings estimates flow through to the stock's valuation as well. It could also be instructive to look at the range of analyst estimates, to evaluate how different the outlier opinions are from the mean. The most optimistic Apria analyst has a price target of US$37.00 per share, while the most pessimistic values it at US$31.00. Even so, with a relatively close grouping of estimates, it looks like the analysts are quite confident in their valuations, suggesting Apria is an easy business to forecast or the the analysts are all using similar assumptions.

Another way we can view these estimates is in the context of the bigger picture, such as how the forecasts stack up against past performance, and whether forecasts are more or less bullish relative to other companies in the industry. We would highlight that Apria's revenue growth is expected to slow, with the forecast 1.0% annualised growth rate until the end of 2021 being well below the historical 3.8% growth over the last year. Compare this against other companies (with analyst forecasts) in the industry, which are in aggregate expected to see revenue growth of 7.5% annually. Factoring in the forecast slowdown in growth, it seems obvious that Apria is also expected to grow slower than other industry participants.