Hong Leong Bank Berhad (KLSE:HLBANK) just released its quarterly report and things are looking bullish. The company beat expectations with revenues of RM1.6b arriving 4.8% ahead of forecasts. Statutory earnings per share (EPS) were RM0.56, 6.4% ahead of estimates. 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.
Check out our latest analysis for Hong Leong Bank Berhad
Following the latest results, Hong Leong Bank Berhad's 15 analysts are now forecasting revenues of RM6.34b in 2025. This would be a satisfactory 2.4% improvement in revenue compared to the last 12 months. Statutory earnings per share are predicted to accumulate 2.2% to RM2.15. In the lead-up to this report, the analysts had been modelling revenues of RM6.31b and earnings per share (EPS) of RM2.16 in 2025. The consensus analysts don't seem to have seen anything in these results that would have changed their view on the business, given there's been no major change to their estimates.
It will come as no surprise then, to learn that the consensus price target is largely unchanged at RM25.41. 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. There are some variant perceptions on Hong Leong Bank Berhad, with the most bullish analyst valuing it at RM31.40 and the most bearish at RM23.20 per share. 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.
Looking at the bigger picture now, one of the ways we can make sense of these forecasts is to see how they measure up against both past performance and industry growth estimates. It's pretty clear that there is an expectation that Hong Leong Bank Berhad's revenue growth will slow down substantially, with revenues to the end of 2025 expected to display 4.9% growth on an annualised basis. This is compared to a historical growth rate of 6.7% 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 6.2% annually. Factoring in the forecast slowdown in growth, it seems obvious that Hong Leong Bank Berhad is also expected to grow slower than other industry participants.