Bullish: Analysts Just Made A Neat Upgrade To Their Henry Boot PLC (LON:BOOT) Forecasts

Henry Boot PLC (LON:BOOT) shareholders will have a reason to smile today, with the analysts making substantial upgrades to this year's statutory forecasts. The consensus statutory numbers for both revenue and earnings per share (EPS) increased, with their view clearly much more bullish on the company's business prospects.

After the upgrade, the three analysts covering Henry Boot are now predicting revenues of UK£327m in 2022. If met, this would reflect a substantial 42% improvement in sales compared to the last 12 months. Per-share earnings are expected to jump 36% to UK£0.29. Previously, the analysts had been modelling revenues of UK£309m and earnings per share (EPS) of UK£0.26 in 2022. There's been a pretty noticeable increase in sentiment, with the analysts upgrading revenues and making a substantial gain in earnings per share in particular.

Check out our latest analysis for Henry Boot

With these upgrades, we're not surprised to see that the analysts have lifted their price target 9.9% to UK£4.00 per share. The consensus price target is just an average of individual analyst targets, so - it could be handy to see how wide the range of underlying estimates is. There are some variant perceptions on Henry Boot, with the most bullish analyst valuing it at UK£4.40 and the most bearish at UK£3.70 per share. With such a narrow range of valuations, analysts apparently share similar views on what they think the business is worth.

Of course, another way to look at these forecasts is to place them into context against the industry itself. One thing stands out from these estimates, which is that Henry Boot is forecast to grow faster in the future than it has in the past, with revenues expected to display 42% annualised growth until the end of 2022. If achieved, this would be a much better result than the 10% annual decline over the past five years. Compare this against analyst estimates for the broader industry, which suggest that (in aggregate) industry revenues are expected to grow 6.6% annually. Not only are Henry Boot's revenues expected to improve, it seems that the analysts are also expecting it to grow faster than the wider industry.

The Bottom Line

The biggest takeaway for us from these new estimates is that analysts upgraded their earnings per share estimates, with improved earnings power expected for this year. They also upgraded their revenue estimates for this year, and sales are expected to grow faster than the wider market. With a serious upgrade to expectations and a rising price target, it might be time to take another look at Henry Boot.

Analysts are definitely bullish on Henry Boot, but no company is perfect. Indeed, you should know that there are several potential concerns to be aware of, including concerns around earnings quality. You can learn more, and discover the 1 other concern 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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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.