Cerus Corporation (NASDAQ:CERS) Released Earnings Last Week And Analysts Lifted Their Price Target To US$5.13
Cerus Corporation (NASDAQ:CERS) came out with its third-quarter results last week, and we wanted to see how the business is performing and what industry forecasters think of the company following this report. It was a curious result overall, with revenues coming in 5.5% below what the analysts had expected, at US$58m. The company broke even in terms of statutory earnings per share (EPS). This is an important time for investors, as they can track a company's performance in its report, look at what experts are forecasting for next year, and see if there has been any change to expectations for the business. We've gathered the most recent statutory forecasts to see whether the analysts have changed their earnings models, following these results.
Taking into account the latest results, the consensus forecast from Cerus' four analysts is for revenues of US$263.8m in 2027. This reflects a solid 16% improvement in revenue compared to the last 12 months. The loss per share is expected to greatly reduce in the near future, narrowing 79% to US$0.0075. Before this latest report, the consensus had been expecting revenues of US$271.5m and US$0.01 per share in losses. Although the revenue estimates have fallen somewhat, Cerus'future looks a little different to the past, with a very favorable reduction to the loss per share forecasts in particular.
See our latest analysis for Cerus
The consensus price target rose 14% to US$5.13, with the analysts increasingly optimistic about shrinking losses, despite the expected decline in revenue. 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. There are some variant perceptions on Cerus, with the most bullish analyst valuing it at US$6.50 and the most bearish at US$4.00 per share. As you can see, analysts are not all in agreement on the stock's future, but the range of estimates is still reasonably narrow, which could suggest that the outcome is not totally unpredictable.
Looking at the bigger picture now, one of the ways we can make sense of these forecasts is to see how they measure up against both past performance and industry growth estimates. It's clear from the latest estimates that Cerus' rate of growth is expected to accelerate meaningfully, with the forecast 13% annualised revenue growth to the end of 2027 noticeably faster than its historical growth of 10% p.a. over the past five years. Compare this with other companies in the same industry, which are forecast to grow their revenue 7.3% annually. It seems obvious that, while the growth outlook is brighter than the recent past, the analysts also expect Cerus to grow faster than the wider industry.
The Bottom Line
The most obvious conclusion is that the analysts made no changes to their forecasts for a loss next year. They also downgraded Cerus' revenue estimates, but industry data suggests that it is expected to grow faster than the wider industry. Even so, earnings are more important to the intrinsic value of the business. We note an upgrade to the price target, suggesting that the analysts believes the intrinsic value of the business is likely to improve over time.
Keeping that in mind, we still think that the longer term trajectory of the business is much more important for investors to consider. We have estimates - from multiple Cerus analysts - going out to 2028, and you can see them free on our platform here.
You can also see whether Cerus is carrying too much debt, and whether its balance sheet is healthy, for free on our platform here.
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