Hannover Rück SE (ETR:HNR1) Analysts Just Slashed This Year's Revenue Estimates By 14%

Today is shaping up negative for Hannover Rück SE (ETR:HNR1) shareholders, with the analysts delivering a substantial negative revision to this year's forecasts. This report focused on revenue estimates, and it looks as though the consensus view of the business has become substantially more conservative.

Following the latest downgrade, the current consensus, from the 13 analysts covering Hannover Rück, is for revenues of €30b in 2023, which would reflect a definite 9.2% reduction in Hannover Rück's sales over the past 12 months. Per-share earnings are expected to step up 15% to €14.81. Prior to this update, the analysts had been forecasting revenues of €35b and earnings per share (EPS) of €14.75 in 2023. Indeed we can see that the consensus opinion has undergone some fundamental changes following the recent consensus updates, with a measurable cut to revenues and some minor tweaks to earnings numbers.

View our latest analysis for Hannover Rück

The average price target was steady at €196 even though revenue estimates declined; likely suggesting the analysts place a higher value on earnings.

These estimates are interesting, but it can be useful to paint some more broad strokes when seeing how forecasts compare, both to the Hannover Rück's past performance and to peers in the same industry. We would highlight that sales are expected to reverse, with a forecast 18% annualised revenue decline to the end of 2023. That is a notable change from historical growth of 12% 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 2.9% annually for the foreseeable future. So although its revenues are forecast to shrink, this cloud does not come with a silver lining - Hannover Rück is expected to lag the wider industry.

The Bottom Line

The most obvious conclusion from this consensus update is that there's been no major change in the business' prospects in recent times, with analysts holding earnings per share steady, in line with previous estimates. Unfortunately analysts also downgraded their revenue estimates, and industry data suggests that Hannover Rück's revenues are expected to grow slower than the wider market. Given the stark change in sentiment, we'd understand if investors became more cautious on Hannover Rück after today.

Even so, the longer term trajectory of the business is much more important for the value creation of shareholders. At Simply Wall St, we have a full range of analyst estimates for Hannover Rück going out to 2025, and you can see them free on our platform here.

Of course, seeing company management invest large sums of money in a stock can be just as useful as knowing whether analysts are downgrading their estimates. So you may also wish to search this free list of stocks 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.