Shareholders of Australian Clinical Labs Limited (ASX:ACL) will be pleased this week, given that the stock price is up 11% to AU$2.80 following its latest full-year results. Results were roughly in line with estimates, with revenues of AU$741m and statutory earnings per share of AU$0.17. Following the result, the analysts have updated their earnings model, and it would be good to know whether they think there's been a strong change in the company's prospects, or if it's business as usual. So we collected the latest post-earnings statutory consensus estimates to see what could be in store for next year.
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Taking into account the latest results, the most recent consensus for Australian Clinical Labs from ten analysts is for revenues of AU$773.6m in 2026. If met, it would imply a credible 4.4% increase on its revenue over the past 12 months. Statutory earnings per share are predicted to climb 15% to AU$0.19. Yet prior to the latest earnings, the analysts had been anticipated revenues of AU$780.6m and earnings per share (EPS) of AU$0.20 in 2026. The analysts seem to have become a little more negative on the business after the latest results, given the minor downgrade to their earnings per share numbers for next year.
Check out our latest analysis for Australian Clinical Labs
The consensus price target held steady at AU$3.60, with the analysts seemingly voting that their lower forecast earnings are not expected to lead to a lower stock price in the foreseeable future. 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 Australian Clinical Labs analyst has a price target of AU$5.00 per share, while the most pessimistic values it at AU$2.90. These price targets show that analysts do have some differing views on the business, but the estimates do not vary enough to suggest to us that some are betting on wild success or utter failure.
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. It's clear from the latest estimates that Australian Clinical Labs' rate of growth is expected to accelerate meaningfully, with the forecast 4.4% annualised revenue growth to the end of 2026 noticeably faster than its historical growth of 3.1% p.a. over the past five years. Compare this with other companies in the same industry, which are forecast to see revenue growth of 15% annually. So it's clear that despite the acceleration in growth, Australian Clinical Labs is expected to grow meaningfully slower than the industry average.