This Analyst Just Wrote A Brand New Outlook For United Bankers Oyj's (HEL:UNITED) Business

United Bankers Oyj (HEL:UNITED) shareholders will have a reason to smile today, with the covering analyst making substantial upgrades to this year's statutory forecasts. Consensus estimates suggest investors could expect greatly increased statutory revenues and earnings per share, with the analyst modelling a real improvement in business performance. The market may be pricing in some blue sky too, with the share price gaining 15% to €17.20 in the last 7 days. It will be interesting to see if today's upgrade is enough to propel the stock even higher.

Following the upgrade, the most recent consensus for United Bankers Oyj from its solo analyst is for revenues of €61m in 2024 which, if met, would be a substantial 21% increase on its sales over the past 12 months. Per-share earnings are expected to jump 31% to €1.62. Before this latest update, the analyst had been forecasting revenues of €55m and earnings per share (EPS) of €1.23 in 2024. So we can see there's been a pretty clear increase in analyst sentiment in recent times, with both revenues and earnings per share receiving a decent lift in the latest estimates.

See our latest analysis for United Bankers Oyj

With these upgrades, we're not surprised to see that the analyst has lifted their price target 12% to €19.00 per share.

These estimates are interesting, but it can be useful to paint some more broad strokes when seeing how forecasts compare, both to the United Bankers Oyj's past performance and to peers in the same industry. The analyst is definitely expecting United Bankers Oyj's growth to accelerate, with the forecast 21% annualised growth to the end of 2024 ranking favourably alongside historical growth of 13% per annum over the past five years. Compare this with other companies in the same industry, which are forecast to grow their revenue 5.9% annually. Factoring in the forecast acceleration in revenue, it's pretty clear that United Bankers Oyj is expected to grow much faster than its industry.

The Bottom Line

The most important thing to take away from this upgrade is that the analyst upgraded their earnings per share estimates for this year, expecting improving business conditions. They also upgraded their revenue estimates for this year, and sales are expected to grow faster than the wider market. Given that the consensus looks almost universally bullish, with a substantial increase to forecasts and a higher price target, United Bankers Oyj could be worth investigating further.

Using these estimates as a starting point, we've run a discounted cash flow calculation (DCF) on United Bankers Oyj that suggests the company could be somewhat undervalued. You can learn more about our valuation methodology 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.