Yahoo Finance Party Time: Brokers Just Made Major Increases To Their CMC Markets plc (LON:CMCX) Earnings Forecasts
CMC Markets plc (LON:CMCX) shareholders will have a reason to smile today, with the analysts making substantial upgrades to this year's forecasts. The analysts greatly increased their revenue estimates, suggesting a stark improvement in business fundamentals. Investors have been pretty optimistic on CMC Markets too, with the stock up 18% to UK£2.18 over the past week. It will be interesting to see if today's upgrade is enough to propel the stock even higher.
Following the upgrade, the most recent consensus for CMC Markets from its five analysts is for revenues of UK£324m in 2024 which, if met, would be a substantial 27% increase on its sales over the past 12 months. Per-share earnings are expected to jump 254% to UK£0.13. Prior to this update, the analysts had been forecasting revenues of UK£296m and earnings per share (EPS) of UK£0.11 in 2024. So it seems there's been a definite increase in optimism about CMC Markets' future following the latest consensus numbers, with a decent improvement in the earnings per share forecasts in particular.
See our latest analysis for CMC Markets
It will come as no surprise to learn that the analysts have increased their price target for CMC Markets 8.6% to UK£1.65 on the back of these upgrades.
Taking a look at the bigger picture now, one of the ways we can understand these forecasts is to see how they compare to both past performance and industry growth estimates. The analysts are definitely expecting CMC Markets' growth to accelerate, with the forecast 60% annualised growth to the end of 2024 ranking favourably alongside historical growth of 11% 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 3.5% per year. It seems obvious that, while the growth outlook is brighter than the recent past, the analysts also expect CMC Markets to grow faster than the wider industry.
The Bottom Line
The biggest takeaway for us from these new estimates is that analysts upgraded their earnings per share estimates, with improved earnings power expected for this year. 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, CMC Markets could be worth investigating further.
Still, the long-term prospects of the business are much more relevant than next year's earnings. At Simply Wall St, we have a full range of analyst estimates for CMC Markets going out to 2026, 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.
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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. 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.
