New Jersey Resources Corporation (NYSE:NJR) shareholders will have a reason to smile today, with the analysts making substantial upgrades to this year's statutory forecasts. The analysts have sharply increased their revenue numbers, with a view that New Jersey Resources will make substantially more sales than they'd previously expected.

Following the upgrade, the current consensus from New Jersey Resources' five analysts is for revenues of US$3.0b in 2024 which - if met - would reflect a sizeable 55% increase on its sales over the past 12 months. Statutory earnings per share are forecast to be US$2.75, approximately in line with the last 12 months. Before this latest update, the analysts had been forecasting revenues of US$2.7b and earnings per share (EPS) of US$2.73 in 2024. It seems analyst sentiment has certainly become more bullish on revenues, even though they haven't changed their view on earnings per share.

See our latest analysis for New Jersey Resources

Even though revenue forecasts increased, there was no change to the consensus price target of US$47.44, suggesting the analysts are focused on earnings as the driver of value creation.

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. For example, we noticed that New Jersey Resources' rate of growth is expected to accelerate meaningfully, with revenues forecast to exhibit 55% growth to the end of 2024 on an annualised basis. That is well above its historical decline of 1.9% a year over the past five years. By contrast, our data suggests that other companies (with analyst coverage) in the industry are forecast to see their revenue grow 5.6% per year. Not only are New Jersey Resources' revenues expected to improve, it seems that the analysts are also expecting it to grow faster than the wider industry.

The Bottom Line

The most important thing to take away is that there's been no major change in sentiment, with analysts reconfirming that earnings per share are expected to continue performing in line with their prior expectations. They also upgraded their revenue estimates for this year, and sales are expected to grow faster than the wider market. Seeing the dramatic upgrade to this year's forecasts, it might be time to take another look at New Jersey Resources.

Even so, the longer term trajectory of the business is much more important for the value creation of shareholders. We have estimates - from multiple New Jersey Resources analysts - going out to 2026, and you can see them free on our platform here.

Another way to search for interesting companies that could be reaching an inflection point is to track whether management are buying or selling, with our free list of growing companies that insiders are buying.

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