Shareholders in Harworth Group plc (LON:HWG) may be thrilled to learn that the analysts have just delivered a major upgrade to their near-term forecasts. The consensus statutory numbers for both revenue and earnings per share (EPS) increased, with their view clearly much more bullish on the company's business prospects. The stock price has risen 6.7% to UK￡1.91 over the past week, suggesting investors are becoming more optimistic. Could this big upgrade push the stock even higher?

Following the upgrade, the current consensus from Harworth Group's dual analysts is for revenues of UK￡113m in 2024 which - if met - would reflect a notable 18% increase on its sales over the past 12 months. Per-share earnings are expected to increase 2.5% to UK￡0.16. Prior to this update, the analysts had been forecasting revenues of UK￡96m and earnings per share (EPS) of UK￡0.12 in 2024. So we can see there's been a pretty clear increase in analyst sentiment in recent times, with both revenues and earnings per share receiving a decent lift in the latest estimates.

View our latest analysis for Harworth Group

With these upgrades, we're not surprised to see that the analysts have lifted their price target 6.4% to UK￡2.16 per share.

These estimates are interesting, but it can be useful to paint some more broad strokes when seeing how forecasts compare, both to the Harworth Group's past performance and to peers in the same industry. The analysts are definitely expecting Harworth Group's growth to accelerate, with the forecast 18% annualised growth to the end of 2024 ranking favourably alongside historical growth of 7.8% per annum over the past five years. Compare this with other companies in the same industry, which are forecast to grow their revenue 0.3% annually. It seems obvious that, while the growth outlook is brighter than the recent past, the analysts also expect Harworth Group 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, Harworth Group could be worth investigating further.

Still, the long-term prospects of the business are much more relevant than next year's earnings. We have analyst estimates for Harworth Group going out as far as 2026, and you can see them free on our platform here.