The annual results for Objective Corporation Limited (ASX:OCL) were released last week, making it a good time to revisit its performance. Revenues of AU$118m were in line with forecasts, although statutory earnings per share (EPS) came in below expectations at AU$0.33, missing estimates by 5.1%. 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. Readers will be glad to know we've aggregated the latest statutory forecasts to see whether the analysts have changed their mind on Objective after the latest results.

View our latest analysis for Objective

Taking into account the latest results, the most recent consensus for Objective from eight analysts is for revenues of AU$127.0m in 2025. If met, it would imply a notable 8.1% increase on its revenue over the past 12 months. Per-share earnings are expected to rise 5.9% to AU$0.35. Yet prior to the latest earnings, the analysts had been anticipated revenues of AU$130.5m and earnings per share (EPS) of AU$0.38 in 2025. It's pretty clear that pessimism has reared its head after the latest results, leading to a weaker revenue outlook and a minor downgrade to earnings per share estimates.

Despite the cuts to forecast earnings, there was no real change to the AU$12.35 price target, showing that the analysts don't think the changes have a meaningful impact on its intrinsic value. 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. The most optimistic Objective analyst has a price target of AU$14.40 per share, while the most pessimistic values it at AU$5.50. Note the wide gap in analyst price targets? This implies to us that there is a fairly broad range of possible scenarios for the underlying business.

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 Objective's revenue growth will slow down substantially, with revenues to the end of 2025 expected to display 8.1% growth on an annualised basis. This is compared to a historical growth rate of 13% over the past five years. Compare this against other companies (with analyst forecasts) in the industry, which are in aggregate expected to see revenue growth of 15% annually. So it's pretty clear that, while revenue growth is expected to slow down, the wider industry is also expected to grow faster than Objective.