Growth Investors: Industry Analysts Just Upgraded Their Ikena Oncology, Inc. (NASDAQ:IKNA) Revenue Forecasts By 31%

Ikena Oncology, Inc. (NASDAQ:IKNA) shareholders will have a reason to smile today, with the analysts making substantial upgrades to next year's statutory forecasts. The consensus estimated revenue numbers rose, with their view now clearly much more bullish on the company's business prospects.

After this upgrade, Ikena Oncology's four analysts are now forecasting revenues of US$22m in 2024. This would be a huge 57% improvement in sales compared to the last 12 months. Per-share losses are expected to see a sharp uptick, reaching US$1.71. Yet before this consensus update, the analysts had been forecasting revenues of US$17m and losses of US$1.71 per share in 2024. So there's definitely been a change in sentiment in this update, with the analysts upgrading next year's revenue estimates, while at the same time holding losses per share steady.

See our latest analysis for Ikena Oncology

Analysts trimmed their valuations, with the average price target falling 14% to US$14.67, with the ongoing losses clearly weighing on sentiment despite the upgraded revenue estimates.

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 Ikena Oncology's rate of growth is expected to accelerate meaningfully, with the forecast 43% annualised revenue growth to the end of 2024 noticeably faster than its historical growth of 23% p.a. 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 8.3% per year. It seems obvious that, while the growth outlook is brighter than the recent past, the analysts also expect Ikena Oncology to grow faster than the wider industry.

The Bottom Line

The highlight for us was that the consensus reduced its estimated losses next year, perhaps suggesting Ikena Oncology is moving incrementally towards profitability. They also upgraded their revenue estimates for next year, and sales are expected to grow faster than the wider market. Furthermore, there was a cut to the price target, suggesting that the latest news has led to more pessimism about the intrinsic value of the business. Given that analysts appear to be expecting substantial improvement in the sales pipeline, now could be the right time to take another look at Ikena Oncology.

These earnings upgrades look like a sterling endorsement, but before diving in - you should know that we've spotted 5 potential risks with Ikena Oncology, including dilutive stock issuance over the past year. For more information, you can click through to our platform to learn more about this and the 3 other risks 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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