News Flash: Analysts Just Made A Substantial Upgrade To Their ATI Inc. (NYSE:ATI) Forecasts

Celebrations may be in order for ATI Inc. (NYSE:ATI) shareholders, with the analysts delivering a significant upgrade to their statutory estimates for the company. The revenue forecast for this year has experienced a facelift, with analysts now much more optimistic on its sales pipeline. Investors have been pretty optimistic on ATI too, with the stock up 17% to US$29.02 over the past week. We'll be curious to see if these new estimates convince the market to lift the stock price higher still.

After this upgrade, ATI's six analysts are now forecasting revenues of US$3.7b in 2022. This would be a decent 14% improvement in sales compared to the last 12 months. Before the latest update, the analysts were foreseeing US$3.3b of revenue in 2022. The consensus has definitely become more optimistic, showing a nice increase in revenue forecasts.

View our latest analysis for ATI

We'd point out that there was no major changes to their price target of US$33.75, suggesting the latest estimates were not enough to shift their view on the value of the business. 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 ATI analyst has a price target of US$38.00 per share, while the most pessimistic values it at US$30.00. 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.

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. For example, we noticed that ATI's rate of growth is expected to accelerate meaningfully, with revenues forecast to exhibit 29% growth to the end of 2022 on an annualised basis. That is well above its historical decline of 5.6% a year over the past five years. Compare this against analyst estimates for the broader industry, which suggest that (in aggregate) industry revenues are expected to decline 0.5% per year. So although ATI is expected to return to growth, it's also expected to grow revenues during a time when the wider industry is estimated to see revenue decline.

The Bottom Line

The most important thing to take away from this upgrade is that analysts lifted their revenue estimates for this year. Analysts also expect revenues to perform better than the wider market. Seeing the dramatic upgrade to this year's forecasts, it might be time to take another look at ATI.

Analysts are clearly in love with ATI at the moment, but before diving in - you should be aware that we've identified some warning flags with the business, such as dilutive stock issuance over the past year. For more information, you can click through to our platform to learn more about this and the 2 other warning signs we've identified .

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.