Newsflash: CRISPR Therapeutics AG (NASDAQ:CRSP) Analysts Have Been Trimming Their Revenue Forecasts

Today is shaping up negative for CRISPR Therapeutics AG (NASDAQ:CRSP) shareholders, with the analysts delivering a substantial negative revision to this year's forecasts. There was a fairly draconian cut to their revenue estimates, perhaps an implicit admission that previous forecasts were much too optimistic.

Following the latest downgrade, the 26 analysts covering CRISPR Therapeutics provided consensus estimates of US$82m revenue in 2024, which would reflect a substantial 70% decline on its sales over the past 12 months. Losses are supposed to balloon 117% to US$5.54 per share. Yet prior to the latest estimates, the analysts had been forecasting revenues of US$121m and losses of US$5.49 per share in 2024. So there's definitely been a change in sentiment in this update, with the analysts administering a substantial haircut to this year's revenue estimates, while at the same time holding losses per share steady.

View our latest analysis for CRISPR Therapeutics

There was no real change to the consensus price target of US$86.78, suggesting that the revisions to revenue estimates are not expected to have a long-term impact on CRISPR Therapeutics' valuation.

Taking a look at the bigger picture now, one of the ways we can understand these forecasts is to see how they compare to both past performance and industry growth estimates. These estimates imply that sales are expected to slow, with a forecast annualised revenue decline of 80% by the end of 2024. This indicates a significant reduction from annual growth of 7.2% over the last five years. By contrast, our data suggests that other companies (with analyst coverage) in the same industry are forecast to see their revenue grow 18% annually for the foreseeable future. It's pretty clear that CRISPR Therapeutics' revenues are expected to perform substantially worse than the wider industry.

The Bottom Line

Unfortunately analysts also downgraded their revenue estimates, and industry data suggests that CRISPR Therapeutics' revenues are expected to grow slower than the wider market. Given the stark change in sentiment, we'd understand if investors became more cautious on CRISPR Therapeutics after today.

Even so, the longer term trajectory of the business is much more important for the value creation of shareholders. We have estimates - from multiple CRISPR Therapeutics analysts - going out to 2026, 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 downgrading their estimates. So you may also wish to search this free list of stocks that insiders are buying.

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