News Flash: Analysts Just Made A Huge Upgrade To Their Lyell Immunopharma, Inc. (NASDAQ:LYEL) Forecasts

Lyell Immunopharma, Inc. (NASDAQ:LYEL) shareholders will have a reason to smile today, with the analysts making substantial upgrades to this year's statutory forecasts. The analysts have sharply increased their revenue numbers, with a view that Lyell Immunopharma will make substantially more sales than they'd previously expected. Investors have been pretty optimistic on Lyell Immunopharma too, with the stock up 31% to US$7.27 over the past week. Could this upgrade be enough to drive the stock even higher?

Following the upgrade, the latest consensus from Lyell Immunopharma's three analysts is for revenues of US$54m in 2022, which would reflect a sizeable 28% improvement in sales compared to the last 12 months. Per-share losses are expected to see a sharp uptick, reaching US$1.09. Yet before this consensus update, the analysts had been forecasting revenues of US$37m and losses of US$1.08 per share in 2022. So there's been quite a change-up of views after the recent consensus updates, withthe analysts noticeably increasing their revenue forecasts while also expecting losses per share to hold steady.

Check out our latest analysis for Lyell Immunopharma

One way to get more context on these forecasts is to look at how they compare to both past performance, and how other companies in the same industry are performing. We would highlight that Lyell Immunopharma's revenue growth is expected to slow, with the forecast 64% annualised growth rate until the end of 2022 being well below the historical 395% growth over the last year. By way of comparison, the other companies in this industry with analyst coverage are forecast to grow their revenue at 14% annually. Even after the forecast slowdown in growth, it seems obvious that Lyell Immunopharma is also expected 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 this year, reflecting increased optimism around Lyell Immunopharma's prospects. They also upgraded their revenue estimates for this year, and sales are expected to grow faster than the wider market. Seeing the dramatic upgrade to this year's forecasts, it might be time to take another look at Lyell Immunopharma.

These earnings upgrades look like a sterling endorsement, but before diving in - you should know that we've spotted 4 potential flags with Lyell Immunopharma, 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 flags we've identified .

Another way to search for interesting companies that could be reaching an inflection point is to track whether management are buying or selling, with our free list of growing companies that insiders are buying.

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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.