A week ago, Vesuvius plc (LON:VSVS) came out with a strong set of annual numbers that could potentially lead to a re-rate of the stock. It was overall a positive result, with revenues beating expectations by 3.2% to hit UK£1.6b. Vesuvius also reported a statutory profit of UK£0.38, which was an impressive 25% above what the analysts had forecast. 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.

View our latest analysis for Vesuvius

Taking into account the latest results, the most recent consensus for Vesuvius from eleven analysts is for revenues of UK£1.69b in 2022 which, if met, would be a credible 2.9% increase on its sales over the past 12 months. Per-share earnings are expected to increase 2.3% to UK£0.39. In the lead-up to this report, the analysts had been modelling revenues of UK£1.70b and earnings per share (EPS) of UK£0.41 in 2022. 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.

The consensus price target held steady at UK£5.59, with the analysts seemingly voting that their lower forecast earnings are not expected to lead to a lower stock price in the foreseeable future. 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. Currently, the most bullish analyst values Vesuvius at UK£7.05 per share, while the most bearish prices it at UK£4.85. These price targets show that analysts do have some differing views on the business, but the estimates do not vary enough to suggest to us that some are betting on wild success or utter failure.

Taking a look at the bigger picture now, one of the ways we can understand these forecasts is to see how they compare to both past performance and industry growth estimates. For example, we noticed that Vesuvius' rate of growth is expected to accelerate meaningfully, with revenues forecast to exhibit 2.9% growth to the end of 2022 on an annualised basis. That is well above its historical decline of 0.5% a year over the past five years. Compare this against analyst estimates for the broader industry, which suggest that (in aggregate) industry revenues are expected to grow 6.1% annually for the foreseeable future. Although Vesuvius' revenues are expected to improve, it seems that the analysts are still bearish on the business, forecasting it to grow slower than the broader industry.