Yahoo Finance HTG Molecular Diagnostics, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTGM) Analysts Are Way More Bearish Than They Used To Be
One thing we could say about the analysts on HTG Molecular Diagnostics, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTGM) - they aren't optimistic, having just made a major negative revision to their near-term (statutory) forecasts for the organization. Revenue and earnings per share (EPS) forecasts were both revised downwards, with the analysts seeing grey clouds on the horizon.
Following the downgrade, the consensus from four analysts covering HTG Molecular Diagnostics is for revenues of US$17m in 2020, implying a definite 10% decline in sales compared to the last 12 months. Losses are predicted to fall substantially, shrinking 30% to US$0.36. However, before this estimates update, the consensus had been expecting revenues of US$24m and US$0.30 per share in losses. So there's been quite a change-up of views after the recent consensus updates, with the analysts making a serious cut to their revenue forecasts while also expecting losses per share to increase.
Check out our latest analysis for HTG Molecular Diagnostics
The consensus price target fell 29% to US$1.68, with the analysts clearly concerned about the company following the weaker revenue and earnings outlook. 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 HTG Molecular Diagnostics, with the most bullish analyst valuing it at US$2.00 and the most bearish at US$0.70 per share. This is a fairly broad spread of estimates, suggesting that the analysts are forecasting a wide range of possible outcomes for the business.
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. These estimates imply that sales are expected to slow, with a forecast revenue decline of 10%, a significant reduction from annual growth of 41% over the last five years. By contrast, our data suggests that other companies (with analyst coverage) in the same industry are forecast to see their revenue grow 14% annually for the foreseeable future. So although its revenues are forecast to shrink, this cloud does not come with a silver lining - HTG Molecular Diagnostics is expected to lag the wider industry.
The Bottom Line
The most important thing to take away is that analysts increased their loss per share estimates for this year. Unfortunately analysts also downgraded their revenue estimates, and industry data suggests that HTG Molecular Diagnostics' revenues are expected to grow slower than the wider market. Given the scope of the downgrades, it would not be a surprise to see the market become more wary of the business.
That said, the analysts might have good reason to be negative on HTG Molecular Diagnostics, given dilutive stock issuance over the past year. Learn more, and discover the 4 other risks 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.
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