Analysts Just Shaved Their Pieris Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:PIRS) Forecasts Dramatically

The latest analyst coverage could presage a bad day for Pieris Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:PIRS), with the analysts making across-the-board cuts to their statutory estimates that might leave shareholders a little shell-shocked. Both revenue and earnings per share (EPS) estimates were cut sharply as analysts factored in the latest outlook for the business, concluding that they were too optimistic previously. The stock price has risen 4.8% to US$0.86 over the past week. It will be interesting to see if this downgrade motivates investors to start selling their holdings.

Following the downgrade, the consensus from dual analysts covering Pieris Pharmaceuticals is for revenues of US$12m in 2023, implying a stressful 29% decline in sales compared to the last 12 months. Losses are supposed to balloon 27% to US$0.70 per share. Yet before this consensus update, the analysts had been forecasting revenues of US$17m and losses of US$0.64 per share in 2023. So there's been quite a change-up of views after the recent consensus updates, with the analysts making a serious cut to their revenue forecasts while also expecting losses per share to increase.

Check out our latest analysis for Pieris Pharmaceuticals

These estimates are interesting, but it can be useful to paint some more broad strokes when seeing how forecasts compare, both to the Pieris Pharmaceuticals' past performance and to peers in the same industry. Over the past five years, revenues have declined around 8.3% annually. Worse, forecasts are essentially predicting the decline to accelerate, with the estimate for an annualised 36% decline in revenue until the end of 2023. By contrast, our data suggests that other companies (with analyst coverage) in a similar industry are forecast to see their revenue grow 19% per year. So while a broad number of companies are forecast to grow, unfortunately Pieris Pharmaceuticals is expected to see its sales affected worse than other companies in the industry.

The Bottom Line

The most important thing to take away is that analysts increased their loss per share estimates for this year. Unfortunately analysts also downgraded their revenue estimates, and industry data suggests that Pieris Pharmaceuticals' revenues are expected to grow slower than the wider market. Given the serious cut to this year's outlook, it's clear that analysts have turned more bearish on Pieris Pharmaceuticals, and we wouldn't blame shareholders for feeling a little more cautious themselves.

Even so, the longer term trajectory of the business is much more important for the value creation of shareholders. At least one analyst has provided forecasts out to 2025, which can be seen for free on our platform here.

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.