Verallia Société Anonyme (EPA:VRLA) Just Released Its Interim Results And Analysts Are Updating Their Estimates

Last week, you might have seen that Verallia Société Anonyme (EPA:VRLA) released its half-yearly result to the market. The early response was not positive, with shares down 4.5% to €26.28 in the past week. It was a workmanlike result, with revenues of €1.8b coming in 2.0% ahead of expectations, and statutory earnings per share of €4.01, in line with analyst appraisals. 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've gathered the most recent statutory forecasts to see whether the analysts have changed their earnings models, following these results.

View our latest analysis for Verallia Société Anonyme

Taking into account the latest results, Verallia Société Anonyme's ten analysts currently expect revenues in 2024 to be €3.54b, approximately in line with the last 12 months. Per-share earnings are expected to expand 11% to €2.67. In the lead-up to this report, the analysts had been modelling revenues of €3.59b and earnings per share (EPS) of €2.95 in 2024. So it looks like there's been a small decline in overall sentiment after the recent results - there's been no major change to revenue estimates, but the analysts did make a small dip in their earnings per share forecasts.

The consensus price target held steady at €41.61, with the analysts seemingly voting that their lower forecast earnings are not expected to lead to a lower stock price in the foreseeable future. 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 Verallia Société Anonyme, with the most bullish analyst valuing it at €46.00 and the most bearish at €36.00 per share. The narrow spread of estimates could suggest that the business' future is relatively easy to value, or thatthe analysts have a strong view on its prospects.

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. We would highlight that Verallia Société Anonyme's revenue growth is expected to slow, with the forecast 0.7% annualised growth rate until the end of 2024 being well below the historical 10% p.a. growth over the last five years. Compare this against other companies (with analyst forecasts) in the industry, which are in aggregate expected to see revenue growth of 4.2% annually. So it's pretty clear that, while revenue growth is expected to slow down, the wider industry is also expected to grow faster than Verallia Société Anonyme.

The Bottom Line

The biggest concern is that the analysts reduced their earnings per share estimates, suggesting business headwinds could lay ahead for Verallia Société Anonyme. Fortunately, the analysts also reconfirmed their revenue estimates, suggesting that it's tracking in line with expectations. Although our data does suggest that Verallia Société Anonyme's revenue is expected to perform worse 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 in mind, we wouldn't be too quick to come to a conclusion on Verallia Société Anonyme. Long-term earnings power is much more important than next year's profits. At Simply Wall St, we have a full range of analyst estimates for Verallia Société Anonyme going out to 2026, and you can see them free on our platform here..

However, before you get too enthused, we've discovered 4 warning signs for Verallia Société Anonyme that you should be aware of.

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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.

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