Enel Américas S.A. Earnings Missed Analyst Estimates: Here's What Analysts Are Forecasting Now

It's been a good week for Enel Américas S.A. (SNSE:ENELAM) shareholders, because the company has just released its latest quarterly results, and the shares gained 3.9% to CL$106. It was a pretty mixed result, with revenues beating expectations to hit US$3.2b. Statutory earnings fell 8.1% short of analyst forecasts, reaching US$0.0024 per share. 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 thought readers would find it interesting to see the analysts latest (statutory) post-earnings forecasts for next year.

View our latest analysis for Enel Américas

Taking into account the latest results, the current consensus from Enel Américas' seven analysts is for revenues of US$15.2b in 2021, which would reflect a sizeable 26% increase on its sales over the past 12 months. Per-share earnings are expected to jump 44% to US$0.015. Yet prior to the latest earnings, the analysts had been anticipated revenues of US$15.1b and earnings per share (EPS) of US$0.01 in 2021. There was no real change to the revenue estimates, but the analysts do seem more bullish on earnings, given the great increase in earnings per share expectations following these results.

There's been no major changes to the consensus price target of CL$141, suggesting that the improved earnings per share outlook is not enough to have a long-term positive impact on the stock's valuation. 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. There are some variant perceptions on Enel Américas, with the most bullish analyst valuing it at CL$143 and the most bearish at CL$138 per share. Still, with such a tight range of estimates, it suggeststhe analysts have a pretty good idea of what they think the company is worth.

These estimates are interesting, but it can be useful to paint some more broad strokes when seeing how forecasts compare, both to the Enel Américas' past performance and to peers in the same industry. It's clear from the latest estimates that Enel Américas' rate of growth is expected to accelerate meaningfully, with the forecast 36% annualised revenue growth to the end of 2021 noticeably faster than its historical growth of 12% p.a. over the past five years. Compare this with other companies in the same industry, which are forecast to see a revenue decline of 0.2% annually. It seems obvious that as part of the brighter growth outlook, Enel Américas is expected to grow faster than the wider industry.

The Bottom Line

The most important thing here is that the analysts upgraded their earnings per share estimates, suggesting that there has been a clear increase in optimism towards Enel Américas following these results. On the plus side, they made no changes to their revenue estimates - and they expect sales to perform better than the wider industry. There was no real change to the consensus price target, suggesting that the intrinsic value of the business has not undergone any major changes with the latest estimates.

With that said, the long-term trajectory of the company's earnings is a lot more important than next year. We have estimates - from multiple Enel Américas analysts - going out to 2023, and you can see them free on our platform here.

And what about risks? Every company has them, and we've spotted 2 warning signs for Enel Américas you should know about.

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