News Flash: Analysts Just Made An Upgrade To Their A.P. Møller - Mærsk A/S (CPH:MAERSK B) Forecasts

Shareholders in A.P. Møller - Mærsk A/S (CPH:MAERSK B) may be thrilled to learn that the analysts have just delivered a major upgrade to their near-term forecasts. The consensus estimated revenue numbers rose, with their view now clearly much more bullish on the company's business prospects. Investor sentiment seems to be improving too, with the share price up 7.0% to kr.21,000 over the past 7 days. Could this big upgrade push the stock even higher?

Following the upgrade, the most recent consensus for A.P. Møller - Mærsk from its 16 analysts is for revenues of US$76b in 2022 which, if met, would be a substantial 22% increase on its sales over the past 12 months. Before the latest update, the analysts were foreseeing US$73b of revenue in 2022. So there's been a pretty clear uptick in analyst sentiment after this consensus update, given the modest lift to this year's revenue forecasts.

See our latest analysis for A.P. Møller - Mærsk

We'd point out that there was no major changes to their price target of US$3,657, suggesting the latest estimates were not enough to shift their view on the value of the business. It could also be instructive to look at the range of analyst estimates, to evaluate how different the outlier opinions are from the mean. There are some variant perceptions on A.P. Møller - Mærsk, with the most bullish analyst valuing it at US$32,367 and the most bearish at US$20,933 per share. We would probably assign less value to the forecasts in this situation, because such a wide range of estimates could imply that the future of this business is difficult to value accurately. With this in mind, we wouldn't rely too heavily on the consensus price target, as it is just an average and analysts clearly have some deeply divergent views on the business.

Looking at the bigger picture now, one of the ways we can make sense of these forecasts is to see how they measure up against both past performance and industry growth estimates. It's clear from the latest estimates that A.P. Møller - Mærsk's rate of growth is expected to accelerate meaningfully, with the forecast 31% annualised revenue growth to the end of 2022 noticeably faster than its historical growth of 13% 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 5.0% annually. So it's clear with the acceleration in growth, A.P. Møller - Mærsk is expected to grow meaningfully faster than the wider industry.

The Bottom Line

The highlight for us was that analysts increased their revenue forecasts for A.P. Møller - Mærsk this year. Analysts also expect revenues to perform better than the wider market. Given that analysts appear to be expecting substantial improvement in the sales pipeline, now could be the right time to take another look at A.P. Møller - Mærsk.

Want to learn more? At least one of A.P. Møller - Mærsk's 16 analysts has provided estimates out to 2024, which can be seen for 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 upgrading 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.