Broker Revenue Forecasts For illimity Bank S.p.A. (BIT:ILTY) Are Surging Higher

Celebrations may be in order for illimity Bank S.p.A. (BIT:ILTY) shareholders, with the analysts delivering a significant upgrade to their statutory estimates for the company. The consensus estimated revenue numbers rose, with their view now clearly much more bullish on the company's business prospects.

After this upgrade, illimity Bank's two analysts are now forecasting revenues of €288m in 2021. This would be a substantial 55% improvement in sales compared to the last 12 months. Per-share earnings are expected to soar 35% to €0.78. Before this latest update, the analysts had been forecasting revenues of €260m and earnings per share (EPS) of €0.76 in 2021. Sentiment certainly seems to have improved in recent times, with a decent improvement in revenue and a modest lift to earnings per share estimates.

See our latest analysis for illimity Bank

With these upgrades, we're not surprised to see that the analysts have lifted their price target 8.9% to €12.20 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. The most optimistic illimity Bank analyst has a price target of €13.00 per share, while the most pessimistic values it at €11.40. The narrow spread of estimates could suggest that the business' future is relatively easy to value, or that the analysts have a clear view on its prospects.

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. We would highlight that illimity Bank's revenue growth is expected to slow, with the forecast 79% annualised growth rate until the end of 2021 being well below the historical 117% growth over the last year. Juxtapose this against the other companies in the industry with analyst coverage, which are forecast to grow their revenues (in aggregate) 3.1% per year. Even after the forecast slowdown in growth, it seems obvious that illimity Bank is also expected to grow faster than the wider industry.

The Bottom Line

The most important thing to take away from this upgrade is that analysts upgraded their earnings per share estimates for this year, expecting improving business conditions. They also upgraded their revenue estimates for this year, and sales are expected to grow faster than the wider market. There was also an increase in the price target, suggesting that there is more optimism baked into the forecasts than there was previously. Given that analysts appear to be expecting substantial improvement in the sales pipeline, now could be the right time to take another look at illimity Bank.

With that said, the long-term trajectory of the company's earnings is a lot more important than next year. We have analyst estimates for illimity Bank going out as far as 2023, and you can see them free on our platform here.

Of course, seeing company management invest large sums of money in a stock can be just as useful as knowing whether analysts are upgrading their estimates. So you may also wish to search this free list of stocks that insiders are buying.

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