The Bénéteau S.A. (EPA:BEN) Analysts Have Been Trimming Their Sales Forecasts

Today is shaping up negative for Bénéteau S.A. (EPA:BEN) 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. At €12.86, shares are up 5.2% in the past 7 days. Investors could be forgiven for changing their mind on the business following the downgrade; but it's not clear if the revised forecasts will lead to selling activity.

After the downgrade, the consensus from Bénéteau's four analysts is for revenues of €1.2b in 2024, which would reflect an uneasy 18% decline in sales compared to the last year of performance. Statutory earnings per share are anticipated to plunge 48% to €1.02 in the same period. Before this latest update, the analysts had been forecasting revenues of €1.3b and earnings per share (EPS) of €1.07 in 2024. It looks like analyst sentiment has fallen somewhat in this update, with a substantial drop in revenue estimates and a small dip in earnings per share numbers as well.

View our latest analysis for Bénéteau

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. These estimates imply that sales are expected to slow, with a forecast annualised revenue decline of 18% by the end of 2024. This indicates a significant reduction from annual growth of 4.2% over the last five years. Compare this with our data, which suggests that other companies in the same industry are, in aggregate, expected to see their revenue grow 2.6% per year. It's pretty clear that Bénéteau's revenues are expected to perform substantially worse than the wider industry.

The Bottom Line

The biggest issue in the new estimates is that analysts have reduced their earnings per share estimates, suggesting business headwinds lay ahead for Bénéteau. Regrettably, they also downgraded their revenue estimates, and the latest forecasts imply the business will grow sales slower than the wider market. Given the stark change in sentiment, we'd understand if investors became more cautious on Bénéteau after today.

As you can see, the analysts clearly aren't bullish, and there might be good reason for that. We've identified some potential issues with Bénéteau's financials, such as concerns around earnings quality. Learn more, and discover the 1 other risk we've identified, for 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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