Banca Generali S.p.A. (BIT:BGN) just released its latest quarterly results and things are looking bullish. Results were good overall, with revenues beating analyst predictions by 9.7% to hit €169m. Statutory earnings per share (EPS) came in at €2.35, some 7.3% above whatthe analysts had expected. Following the result, the analysts have updated their earnings model, and it would be good to know whether they think there's been a strong change in the company's prospects, or if it's business as usual. Readers will be glad to know we've aggregated the latest statutory forecasts to see whether the analysts have changed their mind on Banca Generali after the latest results.

View our latest analysis for Banca Generali

Taking into account the latest results, the six analysts covering Banca Generali provided consensus estimates of €541.6m revenue in 2020, which would reflect a not inconsiderable 12% decline on its sales over the past 12 months. Statutory earnings per share are expected to crater 29% to €1.76 in the same period. Yet prior to the latest earnings, the analysts had been anticipated revenues of €510.4m and earnings per share (EPS) of €1.58 in 2020. There's been a pretty noticeable increase in sentiment, with the analysts upgrading revenues and making a nice gain to earnings per share in particular.

Despite these upgrades,the analysts have not made any major changes to their price target of €24.71, suggesting that the higher estimates are not likely to have a long term impact on what the stock is worth. Fixating on a single price target can be unwise though, since the consensus target is effectively the average of analyst price targets. As a result, some investors like to look at the range of estimates to see if there are any diverging opinions on the company's valuation. Currently, the most bullish analyst values Banca Generali at €28.20 per share, while the most bearish prices it at €19.00. 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.

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. These estimates imply that sales are expected to slow, with a forecast revenue decline of 12%, a significant reduction from annual growth of 6.2% over the last five years. By contrast, our data suggests that other companies (with analyst coverage) in the same industry are forecast to see their revenue grow 2.2% annually for the foreseeable future. So although its revenues are forecast to shrink, this cloud does not come with a silver lining - Banca Generali is expected to lag the wider industry.