Yahoo Finance New Forecasts: Here's What Analysts Think The Future Holds For Quidel Corporation (NASDAQ:QDEL)
Celebrations may be in order for Quidel Corporation (NASDAQ:QDEL) shareholders, with the analysts delivering a significant upgrade to their statutory estimates for the company. The analysts greatly increased their revenue estimates, suggesting a stark improvement in business fundamentals. The market may be pricing in some blue sky too, with the share price gaining 11% to US$282 in the last 7 days. We'll be curious to see if these new estimates convince the market to lift the stock price higher still.
After the upgrade, the five analysts covering Quidel are now predicting revenues of US$1.3b in 2020. If met, this would reflect a major 91% improvement in sales compared to the last 12 months. Per-share earnings are expected to surge 204% to US$11.23. Prior to this update, the analysts had been forecasting revenues of US$951m and earnings per share (EPS) of US$6.19 in 2020. 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 Quidel
It will come as no surprise to learn that the analysts have increased their price target for Quidel 26% to US$300 on the back of these upgrades. It could also be instructive to look at the range of analyst estimates, to evaluate how different the outlier opinions are from the mean. Currently, the most bullish analyst values Quidel at US$363 per share, while the most bearish prices it at US$158. 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.
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. The analysts are definitely expecting Quidel's growth to accelerate, with the forecast 91% growth ranking favourably alongside historical growth of 28% 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 10% per year. It seems obvious that, while the growth outlook is brighter than the recent past, the analysts also expect Quidel to grow faster than the wider 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. Given that the consensus looks almost universally bullish, with a substantial increase to forecasts and a higher price target, Quidel could be worth investigating further.
Even so, the longer term trajectory of the business is much more important for the value creation of shareholders. We have estimates - from multiple Quidel analysts - going out to 2022, and you can see them 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.
Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com.
