Analysts Just Shipped A Meaningful Upgrade To Their Kulicke and Soffa Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:KLIC) Estimates

Kulicke and Soffa Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:KLIC) shareholders will have a reason to smile today, with the analysts making substantial upgrades to next year's forecasts. The analysts greatly increased their revenue estimates, suggesting a stark improvement in business fundamentals. Kulicke and Soffa Industries has also found favour with investors, with the stock up a worthy 20% to US$65.33 over the past week. We'll be curious to see if these new estimates convince the market to lift the stock price higher still.

Following the upgrade, the most recent consensus for Kulicke and Soffa Industries from its three analysts is for revenues of US$1.5b in 2022 which, if met, would be a huge 24% increase on its sales over the past 12 months. Statutory earnings per share are presumed to bounce 26% to US$5.07. Before this latest update, the analysts had been forecasting revenues of US$1.2b and earnings per share (EPS) of US$3.45 in 2022. So we can see there's been a pretty clear increase in analyst sentiment in recent times, with both revenues and earnings per share receiving a decent lift in the latest estimates.

See our latest analysis for Kulicke and Soffa Industries

It will come as no surprise to learn that the analysts have increased their price target for Kulicke and Soffa Industries 15% to US$77.20 on the back of these upgrades. Fixating on a single price target can be unwise though, since the consensus target is effectively the average of analyst price targets. As a result, some investors like to look at the range of estimates to see if there are any diverging opinions on the company's valuation. There are some variant perceptions on Kulicke and Soffa Industries, with the most bullish analyst valuing it at US$90.00 and the most bearish at US$64.00 per share. These price targets show that analysts do have some differing views on the business, but the estimates do not vary enough to suggest to us that some are betting on wild success or utter failure.

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 Kulicke and Soffa Industries' rate of growth is expected to accelerate meaningfully, with the forecast 19% annualised revenue growth to the end of 2022 noticeably faster than its historical growth of 2.4% p.a. over the past five years. Compare this with other companies in the same industry, which are forecast to grow their revenue 8.4% annually. Factoring in the forecast acceleration in revenue, it's pretty clear that Kulicke and Soffa Industries is expected to grow much faster than its industry.

The Bottom Line

The most important thing to take away from this upgrade is that analysts upgraded their earnings per share estimates for next year, expecting improving business conditions. Fortunately, analysts also upgraded their revenue estimates, and our data indicates sales are expected to perform better than the wider market. With a serious upgrade to expectations and a rising price target, it might be time to take another look at Kulicke and Soffa Industries.

Analysts are definitely bullish on Kulicke and Soffa Industries, but no company is perfect. Indeed, you should know that there are several potential concerns to be aware of, including concerns around earnings quality. For more information, you can click through to our platform to learn more about this and the 2 other concerns 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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