Rainbows and Unicorns: Aquestive Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AQST) Analysts Just Became A Lot More Optimistic

Celebrations may be in order for Aquestive Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AQST) 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.

Following the latest upgrade, the current consensus, from the eight analysts covering Aquestive Therapeutics, is for revenues of US$57m in 2024, which would reflect a perceptible 3.0% reduction in Aquestive Therapeutics' sales over the past 12 months. Losses are supposed to balloon 57% to US$0.44 per share. Yet before this consensus update, the analysts had been forecasting revenues of US$50m and losses of US$0.54 per share in 2024. So there's been quite a change-up of views after the recent consensus updates, with the analysts making a sizeable increase to their revenue forecasts while also reducing the estimated loss as the business grows towards breakeven.

See our latest analysis for Aquestive Therapeutics

Despite these upgrades, the analysts have not made any major changes to their price target of US$8.81, implying that their latest estimates don't have a long term impact on what they think the stock is worth.

Of course, another way to look at these forecasts is to place them into context against the industry itself. Over the past five years, revenues have declined around 0.8% annually. Worse, forecasts are essentially predicting the decline to accelerate, with the estimate for an annualised 5.8% decline in revenue until the end of 2024. Compare this against analyst estimates for companies in the broader industry, which suggest that revenues (in aggregate) are expected to grow 9.8% annually. So while a broad number of companies are forecast to grow, unfortunately Aquestive Therapeutics is expected to see its sales affected worse than other companies in the industry.

The Bottom Line

The most important thing here is that analysts reduced their loss per share estimates for this year, reflecting increased optimism around Aquestive Therapeutics' prospects. Pleasantly, analysts also upgraded their revenue estimates, and their forecasts suggest the business is expected to grow slower than the wider market. The lack of change in the price target is puzzling, but with a serious upgrade to this year's earnings expectations, it might be time to take another look at Aquestive Therapeutics.

These earnings upgrades look like a sterling endorsement, but before diving in - you should know that we've spotted 3 potential warning signs with Aquestive Therapeutics, including dilutive stock issuance over the past year. You can learn more, and discover the 2 other warning signs we've identified, for 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 with high insider ownership.

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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.