The Consensus EPS Estimates For uniQure N.V. (NASDAQ:QURE) Just Fell Dramatically
The analysts covering uniQure N.V. (NASDAQ:QURE) delivered a dose of negativity to shareholders today, by making a substantial revision to their statutory forecasts for next year. Revenue and earnings per share (EPS) forecasts were both revised downwards, with analysts seeing grey clouds on the horizon.
Following the downgrade, the current forecast from uniQure's 14 analysts is for revenues of US$72m in 2021, which would reflect a substantial improvement in sales compared to the last 12 months. The loss per share is anticipated to greatly reduce in the near future, narrowing 52% to US$1.80. However, before this estimates update, the consensus had been expecting revenues of US$94m and US$1.28 per share in losses. 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.
See our latest analysis for uniQure
The consensus price target was broadly unchanged at €61.17, perhaps implicitly signalling that the weaker earnings outlook is not expected to have a long-term impact on the valuation. The consensus price target is just an average of individual analyst targets, so - it could be handy to see how wide the range of underlying estimates is. Currently, the most bullish analyst values uniQure at €91.39 per share, while the most bearish prices it at €45.70. Note the wide gap in analyst price targets? This implies to us that there is a fairly broad range of possible scenarios for the underlying business.
Another way we can view these estimates is in the context of the bigger picture, such as how the forecasts stack up against past performance, and whether forecasts are more or less bullish relative to other companies in the industry. One thing stands out from these estimates, which is that uniQure is forecast to grow faster in the future than it has in the past, with revenues expected to grow many times over. If achieved, this would be a much better result than the 19% annual decline over the past five years. Compare this against analyst estimates for the wider industry, which suggest that (in aggregate) industry revenues are expected to grow 21% next year. So it looks like uniQure is expected to grow faster than its competitors, at least for a while.
The Bottom Line
The most important thing to take away is that analysts increased their loss per share estimates for next year. While analysts did downgrade their revenue estimates, these forecasts still imply revenues will perform better than the wider market. We're also surprised to see that the price target went unchanged. Still, deteriorating business conditions (assuming accurate forecasts!) can be a leading indicator for the stock price, so we wouldn't blame investors for being more cautious on uniQure after the downgrade.
There might be good reason for analyst bearishness towards uniQure, like dilutive stock issuance over the past year. For more information, you can click here to discover this and the 3 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 downgrading their estimates. So you may also wish to search this free list of stocks that insiders are buying.
This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. 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.
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