The analysts covering Ceres Power Holdings plc (LON:CWR) delivered a dose of negativity to shareholders today, by making a substantial revision to their statutory forecasts for this year. Both revenue and earnings per share (EPS) estimates were cut sharply as the analysts factored in the latest outlook for the business, concluding that they were too optimistic previously.

Following the downgrade, the consensus from eleven analysts covering Ceres Power Holdings is for revenues of UK￡21m in 2023, implying an uncomfortable 10% decline in sales compared to the last 12 months. Losses are expected to increase substantially, hitting UK￡0.29 per share. Yet before this consensus update, the analysts had been forecasting revenues of UK￡31m and losses of UK￡0.25 per share in 2023. 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 Ceres Power Holdings

The consensus price target fell 13% to UK￡5.36, with the analysts clearly concerned about the company following the weaker revenue and earnings outlook.

These estimates are interesting, but it can be useful to paint some more broad strokes when seeing how forecasts compare, both to the Ceres Power Holdings' past performance and to peers in the same industry. We would highlight that sales are expected to reverse, with a forecast 20% annualised revenue decline to the end of 2023. That is a notable change from historical growth of 17% 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 19% annually for the foreseeable future. So although its revenues are forecast to shrink, this cloud does not come with a silver lining - Ceres Power Holdings is expected to lag the wider industry.

The Bottom Line

The most important thing to note from this downgrade is that the consensus increased its forecast losses this year, suggesting all may not be well at Ceres Power Holdings. Unfortunately analysts also downgraded their revenue estimates, and industry data suggests that Ceres Power Holdings' revenues are expected to grow slower than the wider market. With a serious cut to this year's expectations and a falling price target, we wouldn't be surprised if investors were becoming wary of Ceres Power Holdings.

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 Ceres Power Holdings going out to 2025, and you can see them free on our platform here.