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It's been a sad week for Weatherford International plc (NASDAQ:WFRD), who've watched their investment drop 11% to US$32.28 in the week since the company reported its quarterly result. It was a pretty bad result overall; while revenues were in line with expectations at US$938m, statutory losses exploded to US$1.14 per share. The analysts typically update their forecasts at each earnings report, and we can judge from their estimates whether their view of the company has changed or if there are any new concerns to be aware of. Readers will be glad to know we've aggregated the latest statutory forecasts to see whether the analysts have changed their mind on Weatherford International after the latest results.
View our latest analysis for Weatherford International
Taking into account the latest results, the consensus forecast from Weatherford International's three analysts is for revenues of US$4.12b in 2022, which would reflect a meaningful 9.8% improvement in sales compared to the last 12 months. Losses are predicted to fall substantially, shrinking 77% to US$1.36. Yet prior to the latest earnings, the analysts had been forecasting revenues of US$4.11b and losses of US$1.02 per share in 2022. So it's pretty clear the analysts have mixed opinions on Weatherford International even after this update; although they reconfirmed their revenue numbers, it came at the cost of a sizeable expansion in per-share losses.
Despite expectations of heavier losses next year,the analysts have lifted their price target 12% to US$51.33, perhaps implying these losses are not expected to be recurring over the long term. 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 Weatherford International, with the most bullish analyst valuing it at US$63.00 and the most bearish at US$36.00 per share. 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.
These estimates are interesting, but it can be useful to paint some more broad strokes when seeing how forecasts compare, both to the Weatherford International's past performance and to peers in the same industry. One thing stands out from these estimates, which is that Weatherford International is forecast to grow faster in the future than it has in the past, with revenues expected to display 13% annualised growth until the end of 2022. If achieved, this would be a much better result than the 11% annual decline over the past five years. By contrast, our data suggests that other companies (with analyst coverage) in the industry are forecast to see their revenue grow 9.8% per year. Not only are Weatherford International's revenues expected to improve, it seems that the analysts are also expecting it to grow faster than the wider industry.