Party Time: Brokers Just Made Major Increases To Their Great Portland Estates Plc (LON:GPOR) Earnings Forecasts

Celebrations may be in order for Great Portland Estates Plc (LON:GPOR) shareholders, with the analysts delivering a significant upgrade to their statutory estimates for the company. Consensus estimates suggest investors could expect greatly increased statutory revenues and earnings per share, with analysts modelling a real improvement in business performance.

After this upgrade, Great Portland Estates' ten analysts are now forecasting revenues of UK£111m in 2022. This would be a sizeable 26% improvement in sales compared to the last 12 months. The losses are expected to disappear over the next year or so, with forecasts for a profit of UK£0.36 per share this year. Prior to this update, the analysts had been forecasting revenues of UK£91m and earnings per share (EPS) of UK£0.094 in 2022. 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.

View our latest analysis for Great Portland Estates

Despite these upgrades, the analysts have not made any major changes to their price target of UK£6.88, suggesting that the higher estimates are not likely to have a long term impact on what the stock is worth. That's not the only conclusion we can draw from this data however, as some investors also like to consider the spread in estimates when evaluating analyst price targets. Currently, the most bullish analyst values Great Portland Estates at UK£8.93 per share, while the most bearish prices it at UK£4.60. This is a fairly broad spread of estimates, suggesting that the analysts are forecasting a wide range of possible outcomes for the business.

Of course, another way to look at these forecasts is to place them into context against the industry itself. For example, we noticed that Great Portland Estates' rate of growth is expected to accelerate meaningfully, with revenues forecast to exhibit 26% growth to the end of 2022 on an annualised basis. That is well above its historical decline of 7.1% a year over the past five years. By contrast, our data suggests that other companies (with analyst coverage) in the industry are forecast to see their revenue grow 4.1% per year. So it looks like Great Portland Estates is expected to grow faster than its competitors, at least for a while.

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. Some investors might be disappointed to see that the price target is unchanged, but we feel that improving fundamentals are usually a positive - assuming these forecasts are met! So Great Portland Estates could be a good candidate for more research.

Still, the long-term prospects of the business are much more relevant than next year's earnings. At Simply Wall St, we have a full range of analyst estimates for Great Portland Estates going out to 2025, and you can see them 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. 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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