Yahoo Finance Perficient, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRFT) First-Quarter Results: Here's What Analysts Are Forecasting For This Year
It's been a good week for Perficient, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRFT) shareholders, because the company has just released its latest quarterly results, and the shares gained 8.8% to US$35.67. It looks like the results were a bit of a negative overall. While revenues of US$146m were in line with analyst predictions, statutory earnings were less than expected, missing estimates by 2.4% to hit US$0.27 per share. Earnings are an important time for investors, as they can track a company's performance, look at what the analysts are forecasting for next year, and see if there's been a change in sentiment towards the company. We've gathered the most recent statutory forecasts to see whether the analysts have changed their earnings models, following these results.
View our latest analysis for Perficient
Following last week's earnings report, Perficient's seven analysts are forecasting 2020 revenues to be US$578.8m, approximately in line with the last 12 months. Statutory earnings per share are expected to shrink 9.2% to US$1.13 in the same period. In the lead-up to this report, the analysts had been modelling revenues of US$579.3m and earnings per share (EPS) of US$1.19 in 2020. The analysts seem to have become a little more negative on the business after the latest results, given the minor downgrade to their earnings per share numbers for next year.
The consensus price target held steady at US$42.33, with the analysts seemingly voting that their lower forecast earnings are not expected to lead to a lower stock price in the foreseeable future. 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 Perficient, with the most bullish analyst valuing it at US$50.00 and the most bearish at US$35.00 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 pretty clear that there is an expectation that Perficient's revenue growth will slow down substantially, with revenues next year expected to grow 0.3%, compared to a historical growth rate of 4.4% over the past five years. By way of comparison, the other companies in this industry with analyst coverage are forecast to grow their revenue at 11% per year. Factoring in the forecast slowdown in growth, it seems obvious that Perficient is also expected to grow slower than other industry participants.
The Bottom Line
The most important thing to take away is that the analysts downgraded their earnings per share estimates, showing that there has been a clear decline in sentiment following these results. On the plus side, there were no major changes to revenue estimates; although forecasts imply revenues will perform worse than the wider industry. There was no real change to the consensus price target, suggesting that the intrinsic value of the business has not undergone any major changes with the latest estimates.
With that said, the long-term trajectory of the company's earnings is a lot more important than next year. We have estimates - from multiple Perficient analysts - going out to 2022, and you can see them free on our platform here.
We don't want to rain on the parade too much, but we did also find 1 warning sign for Perficient that you need to be mindful of.
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