Analysts Just Made A Sizeable Upgrade To Their AC Immune SA (NASDAQ:ACIU) Forecasts

AC Immune SA (NASDAQ:ACIU) shareholders will have a reason to smile today, with the analysts making substantial upgrades to next year's statutory forecasts. Consensus estimates suggest investors could expect greatly increased statutory revenues and earnings per share, with analysts modelling a real improvement in business performance. The stock price has risen 6.7% to US$6.33 over the past week, suggesting investors are becoming more optimistic. It will be interesting to see if this latest upgrade is enough to kickstart further buying interest in the stock.

After the upgrade, the three analysts covering AC Immune are now predicting revenues of CHF57m in 2021. If met, this would reflect a huge 258% improvement in sales compared to the last 12 months. The loss per share is anticipated to greatly reduce in the near future, narrowing 42% to CHF0.50. Yet prior to the latest estimates, the analysts had been forecasting revenues of CHF50m and losses of CHF0.61 per share in 2021. We can see there's definitely been a change in sentiment in this update, with the analysts administering a sizeable upgrade to next year's revenue estimates, while at the same time reducing their loss estimates.

View our latest analysis for AC Immune

It will come as no surprise to learn that the analysts have increased their price target for AC Immune 7.7% to CHF11.05 on the back of these upgrades. It could also be instructive to look at the range of analyst estimates, to evaluate how different the outlier opinions are from the mean. There are some variant perceptions on AC Immune, with the most bullish analyst valuing it at CHF17.00 and the most bearish at CHF4.99 per share. We would probably assign less value to the forecasts in this situation, because such a wide range of estimates could imply that the future of this business is difficult to value accurately. With this in mind, we wouldn't rely too heavily on the consensus price target, as it is just an average and analysts clearly have some deeply divergent views on the business.

Of course, another way to look at these forecasts is to place them into context against the industry itself. It's clear from the latest estimates that AC Immune's rate of growth is expected to accelerate meaningfully, with the forecast 258% revenue growth noticeably faster than its historical growth of 15% p.a. over the past five years. Compare this with other companies in the same industry, which are forecast to grow their revenue 20% next year. It seems obvious that, while the growth outlook is brighter than the recent past, the analysts also expect AC Immune to grow faster than the wider industry.

The Bottom Line

The most important thing here is that analysts reduced their loss per share estimates for next year, reflecting increased optimism around AC Immune's prospects. They also upgraded their revenue estimates for next year, and sales are expected to grow faster than the wider market. Given that the consensus looks almost universally bullish, with a substantial increase to forecasts and a higher price target, AC Immune could be worth investigating further.

Even so, the longer term trajectory of the business is much more important for the value creation of shareholders. At Simply Wall St, we have a full range of analyst estimates for AC Immune going out to 2025, 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. 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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