Industry Analysts Just Upgraded Their China Merchants Port Holdings Company Limited (HKG:144) Revenue Forecasts By 12%

China Merchants Port Holdings Company Limited (HKG:144) shareholders will have a reason to smile today, with the analysts making substantial upgrades to this year's forecasts. The revenue forecast for this year has experienced a facelift, with the analysts now much more optimistic on its sales pipeline.

Following the upgrade, the latest consensus from China Merchants Port Holdings' ten analysts is for revenues of HK$14b in 2023, which would reflect a notable 14% improvement in sales compared to the last 12 months. Per-share earnings are expected to accumulate 8.9% to HK$1.66. Previously, the analysts had been modelling revenues of HK$12b and earnings per share (EPS) of HK$1.66 in 2023. There's clearly been a surge in bullishness around the company's sales pipeline, even if there's no real change in earnings per share forecasts.

View our latest analysis for China Merchants Port Holdings

One way to get more context on these forecasts is to look at how they compare to both past performance, and how other companies in the same industry are performing. It's clear from the latest estimates that China Merchants Port Holdings' rate of growth is expected to accelerate meaningfully, with the forecast 30% annualised revenue growth to the end of 2023 noticeably faster than its historical growth of 7.0% p.a. over the past five years. By contrast, our data suggests that other companies (with analyst coverage) in a similar industry are forecast to grow their revenue at 6.2% per year. Factoring in the forecast acceleration in revenue, it's pretty clear that China Merchants Port Holdings is expected to grow much faster than its industry.

The Bottom Line

The most obvious conclusion from this consensus update is that there's been no major change in the business' prospects in recent times, with analysts holding earnings per share steady, in line with previous estimates. They also upgraded their revenue estimates for this year, and sales are expected to grow faster than the wider market. Given that analysts appear to be expecting substantial improvement in the sales pipeline, now could be the right time to take another look at China Merchants Port Holdings.

Using these estimates as a starting point, we've run a discounted cash flow calculation (DCF) on China Merchants Port Holdings that suggests the company could be somewhat undervalued. For more information, you can click through to our platform to learn more about our valuation approach.

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.