Shareholders in Riot Blockchain, Inc. (NASDAQ:RIOT) may be thrilled to learn that the analysts have just delivered a major upgrade to their near-term forecasts. The analysts greatly increased their revenue estimates, suggesting a stark improvement in business fundamentals. Investor sentiment seems to be improving too, with the share price up 6.4% to US$36.21 over the past 7 days. It will be interesting to see if this latest upgrade is enough to kickstart further buying interest in the stock.
Following the upgrade, the current consensus from Riot Blockchain’s three analysts is for revenues of US$220m in 2021 which – if met – would reflect a huge increase on its sales over the past 12 months. Losses are expected to turn into profits real soon, with the analysts forecasting US$0.90 in per-share earnings. Before this latest update, the analysts had been forecasting revenues of US$179m and earnings per share (EPS) of US$0.69 in 2021. 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.
View our latest analysis for Riot Blockchain
It will come as no surprise to learn that the analysts have increased their price target for Riot Blockchain 9.4% to US$46.33 on the back of these upgrades. 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 Riot Blockchain at US$44.00 per share, while the most bearish prices it at US$40.00. Even so, with a relatively close grouping of estimates, it looks like the analysts are quite confident in their valuations, suggesting Riot Blockchain is an easy business to forecast or the underlying assumptions are obvious.
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. The analysts are definitely expecting Riot Blockchain’s growth to accelerate, with the forecast 12x annualised growth to the end of 2021 ranking favourably alongside historical growth of 64% per annum over the past five years. By contrast, our data suggests that other companies (with analyst coverage) in a similar industry are forecast to grow their revenue at 14% per year. Factoring in the forecast acceleration in revenue, it’s pretty clear that Riot Blockchain 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 this year, expecting improving business conditions. They also upgraded their revenue estimates for this year, and sales are expected to grow faster than the wider market. With a serious upgrade to expectations and a rising price target, it might be time to take another look at Riot Blockchain.
Analysts are definitely bullish on Riot Blockchain, but no company is perfect. Indeed, you should know that there are several potential concerns to be aware of, including major dilution from new stock issuance in the past year. You can learn more, and discover the 2 other flags we’ve identified, 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.
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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