Party Time: Brokers Just Made Major Increases To Their Bank First Corporation (NASDAQ:BFC) Earnings Forecasts
Bank First Corporation (NASDAQ:BFC) 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.
Following the upgrade, the current consensus from Bank First's twin analysts is for revenues of US$113m in 2021 which - if met - would reflect a decent 9.7% increase on its sales over the past 12 months. Statutory earnings per share are expected to be US$5.07, roughly flat on the last 12 months. Previously, the analysts had been modelling revenues of US$97m and earnings per share (EPS) of US$4.50 in 2021. There has definitely been an improvement in perception recently, with the analysts substantially increasing both their earnings and revenue estimates.
Check out our latest analysis for Bank First
Despite these upgrades, the analysts have not made any major changes to their price target of US$72.50, suggesting that the higher estimates are not likely to have a long term impact on what the stock is worth. It could also be instructive to look at the range of analyst estimates, to evaluate how different the outlier opinions are from the mean. There are some variant perceptions on Bank First, with the most bullish analyst valuing it at US$72.00 and the most bearish at US$70.00 per share. With such a narrow range of valuations, analysts apparently share similar views on what they think the business is worth.
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 Bank First's revenue growth will slow down substantially, with revenues next year expected to grow 9.7%, compared to a historical growth rate of 17% 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 6.0% next year. Even after the forecast slowdown in growth, it seems obvious that Bank First is also expected 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. Fortunately, analysts also upgraded their revenue estimates, and our data indicates sales are expected to perform better than the wider market. Some investors might be disappointed to see that the price target is unchanged, but we feel that improving fundamentals are usually a positive - assuming these forecasts are met! So Bank First could be a good candidate for more research.
Analysts are clearly in love with Bank First at the moment, but before diving in - you should be aware that we've identified some warning flags with the business, such as dilutive stock issuance over the past year. For more information, you can click through to our platform to learn more about this and the 2 other flags we've identified .
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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