Analysts Just Made A Sizeable Upgrade To Their Wan Hai Lines Ltd. (TWSE:2615) Forecasts

Celebrations may be in order for Wan Hai Lines Ltd. (TWSE:2615) shareholders, with the analysts delivering a significant upgrade to their statutory estimates for the company. The consensus statutory numbers for both revenue and earnings per share (EPS) increased, with their view clearly much more bullish on the company's business prospects.

After this upgrade, Wan Hai Lines' three analysts are now forecasting revenues of NT$153b in 2024. This would be a huge 50% improvement in sales compared to the last 12 months. Per-share earnings are expected to jump 3,342% to NT$11.59. Before this latest update, the analysts had been forecasting revenues of NT$138b and earnings per share (EPS) of NT$9.64 in 2024. 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.

Check out our latest analysis for Wan Hai Lines

Despite these upgrades, the consensus price target fell 16% to NT$71.33, perhaps signalling that the uplift in performance is not expected to last.

Another way we can view these estimates is in the context of the bigger picture, such as how the forecasts stack up against past performance, and whether forecasts are more or less bullish relative to other companies in the industry. The analysts are definitely expecting Wan Hai Lines' growth to accelerate, with the forecast 71% annualised growth to the end of 2024 ranking favourably alongside historical growth of 19% per annum 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 2.6% per year. It seems obvious that, while the growth outlook is brighter than the recent past, the analysts also expect Wan Hai Lines to grow faster than the wider industry.

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. Fortunately, analysts also upgraded their revenue estimates, and our data indicates sales are expected to perform better than the wider market. A lower price target is not intuitively what we would expect from a company whose business prospects are improving - at least judging by these forecasts - but if the underlying fundamentals are strong, Wan Hai Lines could be one for the watch list.

Analysts are clearly in love with Wan Hai Lines at the moment, but before diving in - you should be aware that we've identified some warning flags with the business, such as its declining profit margins. For more information, you can click through to our platform to learn more about this and the 1 other risk we've identified .

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 backed by insiders.

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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.

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