Growth Investors: Industry Analysts Just Upgraded Their Zurich Insurance Group AG (VTX:ZURN) Revenue Forecasts By 11%

Zurich Insurance Group AG (VTX:ZURN) shareholders will have a reason to smile today, with the analysts making substantial upgrades to this year's statutory forecasts. The revenue forecast for this year has experienced a facelift, with analysts now much more optimistic on its sales pipeline.

After the upgrade, the ten analysts covering Zurich Insurance Group are now predicting revenues of US$64b in 2023. If met, this would reflect a huge 42% improvement in sales compared to the last 12 months. Per-share earnings are expected to jump 21% to US$38.92. Prior to this update, the analysts had been forecasting revenues of US$58b and earnings per share (EPS) of US$39.31 in 2023. There's clearly been a surge in bullishness around the company's sales pipeline, even if there's no real change in earnings per share forecasts.

See our latest analysis for Zurich Insurance Group

Even though revenue forecasts increased, there was no change to the consensus price target of CHF453, suggesting the analysts are focused on earnings as the driver of value creation.

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. One thing stands out from these estimates, which is that Zurich Insurance Group is forecast to grow faster in the future than it has in the past, with revenues expected to display 102% annualised growth until the end of 2023. If achieved, this would be a much better result than the 3.0% 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 4.6% per year. Not only are Zurich Insurance Group's revenues expected to improve, it seems that the analysts are also expecting it to grow faster than the wider industry.

The Bottom Line

The most important thing to take away is that there's been no major change in sentiment, with analysts reconfirming that earnings per share are expected to continue performing in line with their prior expectations. They also upgraded their revenue estimates for this year, and sales are expected to grow faster than the wider market. Seeing the dramatic upgrade to this year's forecasts, it might be time to take another look at Zurich Insurance Group.

Still, the long-term prospects of the business are much more relevant than next year's earnings. We have estimates - from multiple Zurich Insurance Group analysts - going out to 2025, and you can see them free on our platform here.

Another way to search for interesting companies that could be reaching an inflection point is to track whether management are buying or selling, with our free list of growing companies that insiders are buying.

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.