Need To Know: Analysts Are Much More Bullish On Aegon N.V. (AMS:AGN) Revenues

Aegon N.V. (AMS:AGN) shareholders will have a reason to smile today, with the analysts making substantial upgrades to this year's forecasts. The consensus estimated revenue numbers rose, with their view now clearly much more bullish on the company's business prospects.

Following the upgrade, the consensus from ten analysts covering Aegon is for revenues of €21b in 2022, implying a painful 34% decline in sales compared to the last 12 months. Statutory earnings per share are anticipated to fall 15% to €0.67 in the same period. Before this latest update, the analysts had been forecasting revenues of €14b and earnings per share (EPS) of €0.68 in 2022. 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.

Check out our latest analysis for Aegon

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. These estimates imply that sales are expected to slow, with a forecast annualised revenue decline of 43% by the end of 2022. This indicates a significant reduction from annual growth of 1.9% over the last five years. By contrast, our data suggests that other companies (with analyst coverage) in the same industry are forecast to see their revenue grow 1.5% annually for the foreseeable future. So although its revenues are forecast to shrink, this cloud does not come with a silver lining - Aegon is expected to lag the wider industry.

The Bottom Line

The most important thing to take away is that there's been no major change in sentiment, with analysts reconfirming that earnings per share are expected to continue performing in line with their prior expectations. Fortunately, they also upgraded their revenue estimates, and are forecasting revenues to grow slower than the wider market. Seeing the dramatic upgrade to this year's forecasts, it might be time to take another look at Aegon.

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 Aegon going out to 2024, 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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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.