The Dolphin Drilling AS (OB:DDRIL) Full-Year Results Are Out And Analysts Have Published New Forecasts

It's been a good week for Dolphin Drilling AS (OB:DDRIL) shareholders, because the company has just released its latest yearly results, and the shares gained 10.0% to kr3.30. Revenues of US$93m crushed expectations, although expenses increased commensurately, with statutory losses hitting US$0.22 per share, -12% above what the analysts expected. This is an important time for investors, as they can track a company's performance in its report, look at what experts are forecasting for next year, and see if there has been any change to expectations for the business. So we collected the latest post-earnings statutory consensus estimates to see what could be in store for next year.

View our latest analysis for Dolphin Drilling

After the latest results, the four analysts covering Dolphin Drilling are now predicting revenues of US$161.6m in 2025. If met, this would reflect a sizeable 74% improvement in revenue compared to the last 12 months. Earnings are expected to improve, with Dolphin Drilling forecast to report a statutory profit of US$0.02 per share. Before this earnings report, the analysts had been forecasting revenues of US$162.7m and earnings per share (EPS) of US$0.13 in 2025. So there's definitely been a decline in sentiment after the latest results, noting the pretty serious reduction to new EPS forecasts.

The consensus price target held steady at kr3.82, with the analysts seemingly voting that their lower forecast earnings are not expected to lead to a lower stock price in the foreseeable future. There's another way to think about price targets though, and that's to look at the range of price targets put forward by analysts, because a wide range of estimates could suggest a diverse view on possible outcomes for the business. The most optimistic Dolphin Drilling analyst has a price target of kr4.45 per share, while the most pessimistic values it at kr3.23. As you can see the range of estimates is wide, with the lowest valuation coming in at less than half the most bullish estimate, suggesting there are some strongly diverging views on how analysts think this business will perform. As a result it might not be a great idea to make decisions based on the consensus price target, which is after all just an average of this wide range of estimates.

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. For example, we noticed that Dolphin Drilling's rate of growth is expected to accelerate meaningfully, with revenues forecast to exhibit 74% growth to the end of 2025 on an annualised basis. That is well above its historical decline of 1.2% a year over the past three years. Compare this against analyst estimates for the broader industry, which suggest that (in aggregate) industry revenues are expected to grow 2.5% annually. So it looks like Dolphin Drilling is expected to grow faster than its competitors, at least for a while.

The Bottom Line

The most important thing to take away is that the analysts downgraded their earnings per share estimates, showing that there has been a clear decline in sentiment following these results. Fortunately, they also reconfirmed their revenue numbers, suggesting that it's tracking in line with expectations. Additionally, our data suggests that revenue is expected to grow faster than the wider industry. There was no real change to the consensus price target, suggesting that the intrinsic value of the business has not undergone any major changes with the latest estimates.

Keeping that in mind, we still think that the longer term trajectory of the business is much more important for investors to consider. We have forecasts for Dolphin Drilling going out to 2027, and you can see them free on our platform here.

And what about risks? Every company has them, and we've spotted 3 warning signs for Dolphin Drilling (of which 1 is concerning!) you should know about.

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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.