Growth Investors: Industry Analysts Just Upgraded Their Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ:LGND) Revenue Forecasts By 11%

Shareholders in Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ:LGND) may be thrilled to learn that the analysts have just delivered a major upgrade to their near-term forecasts. The consensus estimated revenue numbers rose, with their view now clearly much more bullish on the company's business prospects. Ligand Pharmaceuticals has also found favour with investors, with the stock up a noteworthy 12% to US$106 over the past week. It will be interesting to see if today's upgrade is enough to propel the stock even higher.

Following the latest upgrade, the five analysts covering Ligand Pharmaceuticals provided consensus estimates of US$179m revenue in 2022, which would reflect a concerning 25% decline on its sales over the past 12 months. Losses are supposed to balloon 323% to US$2.00 per share. Yet prior to the latest estimates, the analysts had been forecasting revenues of US$162m and losses of US$2.58 per share in 2022. We can see there's definitely been a change in sentiment in this update, with the analysts administering a sizeable upgrade to this year's revenue estimates, while at the same time reducing their loss estimates.

See our latest analysis for Ligand Pharmaceuticals

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 44% by the end of 2022. This indicates a significant reduction from annual growth of 9.7% 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 15% annually for the foreseeable future. It's pretty clear that Ligand Pharmaceuticals' revenues are expected to perform substantially worse than the wider 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 Ligand Pharmaceuticals' prospects. Fortunately, they also upgraded their revenue estimates, and are forecasting revenues to grow slower than the wider market. Given that analysts appear to be expecting substantial improvement in the sales pipeline, now could be the right time to take another look at Ligand Pharmaceuticals.

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 Ligand Pharmaceuticals going out to 2024, and you can see them free on our platform here..

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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.