Coherus BioSciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:CHRS) just released its latest second-quarter results and things are looking bullish. The results overall were pretty good, with revenues of US$65m exceeding expectations and statutory losses coming in at justUS$0.11 per share, some 46% below what the analysts had forecast. 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. So we gathered the latest post-earnings forecasts to see what estimates suggest is in store for next year.

Taking into account the latest results, the eight analysts covering Coherus BioSciences provided consensus estimates of US$273.9m revenue in 2024, which would reflect an uncomfortable 11% decline over the past 12 months. Coherus BioSciences is also expected to turn profitable, with statutory earnings of US$0.063 per share. Before this earnings report, the analysts had been forecasting revenues of US$259.3m and earnings per share (EPS) of US$0.37 in 2024. While next year's revenue estimates increased, there was also a large cut to EPS expectations, suggesting the consensus has a bit of a mixed view of these results.

The consensus price target fell 8.0% to US$7.67, suggesting that the analysts are primarily focused on earnings as the driver of value for this business. There's another way to think about price targets though, and that's to look at the range of price targets put forward by analysts, because a wide range of estimates could suggest a diverse view on possible outcomes for the business. There are some variant perceptions on Coherus BioSciences, with the most bullish analyst valuing it at US$12.00 and the most bearish at US$4.00 per share. So we wouldn't be assigning too much credibility to analyst price targets in this case, because there are clearly some widely different views on what kind of performance this business can generate. With this in mind, we wouldn't rely too heavily the consensus price target, as it is just an average and analysts clearly have some deeply divergent views on the business.

Another way we can view these estimates is in the context of the bigger picture, such as how the forecasts stack up against past performance, and whether forecasts are more or less bullish relative to other companies in the industry. One more thing stood out to us about these estimates, and it's the idea that Coherus BioSciences' decline is expected to accelerate, with revenues forecast to fall at an annualised rate of 21% to the end of 2024. This tops off a historical decline of 8.6% a year over the past five years. Compare this against analyst estimates for companies in the broader industry, which suggest that revenues (in aggregate) are expected to grow 23% annually. So while a broad number of companies are forecast to grow, unfortunately Coherus BioSciences is expected to see its revenue affected worse than other companies in the industry.

The Bottom Line

The most important thing to take away is that the analysts downgraded their earnings per share estimates, showing that there has been a clear decline in sentiment following these results. Fortunately, they also upgraded their revenue estimates, although our data indicates it is expected to perform worse than the wider industry. The consensus price target fell measurably, with the analysts seemingly not reassured by the latest results, leading to a lower estimate of Coherus BioSciences' future valuation.

Keeping that in mind, we still think that the longer term trajectory of the business is much more important for investors to consider. We have forecasts for Coherus BioSciences going out to 2026, and you can see them free on our platform here.

Even so, be aware that Coherus BioSciences is showing 3 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 1 of those is potentially serious...

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