ZIM Integrated Shipping Services Ltd. (NYSE:ZIM) shareholders will have a reason to smile today, with the analysts making substantial upgrades to this year's statutory 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.

After this upgrade, ZIM Integrated Shipping Services' five analysts are now forecasting revenues of US$7.7b in 2024. This would be a sizeable 29% improvement in sales compared to the last 12 months. Losses are expected to turn into profits real soon, with the analysts forecasting US$12.03 in per-share earnings. Before this latest update, the analysts had been forecasting revenues of US$6.9b and earnings per share (EPS) of US$7.31 in 2024. There has definitely been an improvement in perception recently, with the analysts substantially increasing both their earnings and revenue estimates.

Although the analysts have upgraded their earnings estimates, there was no change to the consensus price target of US$17.87, suggesting that the forecast performance does not have a long term impact on the company's valuation.

These estimates are interesting, but it can be useful to paint some more broad strokes when seeing how forecasts compare, both to the ZIM Integrated Shipping Services' past performance and to peers in the same industry. The analysts are definitely expecting ZIM Integrated Shipping Services' growth to accelerate, with the forecast 65% annualised growth to the end of 2024 ranking favourably alongside historical growth of 16% per annum over the past five years. By contrast, our data suggests that other companies (with analyst coverage) in the same industry are forecast to see their revenue shrink 0.2% per year. So it's clear with the acceleration in growth, ZIM Integrated Shipping Services is expected to grow meaningfully 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. Fortunately, they also upgraded their revenue estimates, and our data indicates sales are expected to perform better than the wider market. Some investors might be disappointed to see that the price target is unchanged, but we feel that improving fundamentals are usually a positive - assuming these forecasts are met! So ZIM Integrated Shipping Services could be a good candidate for more research.

Still, the long-term prospects of the business are much more relevant than next year's earnings. At Simply Wall St, we have a full range of analyst estimates for ZIM Integrated Shipping Services going out to 2026, and you can see them free on our platform here..

Of course, seeing company management invest large sums of money in a stock can be just as useful as knowing whether analysts are upgrading their estimates. So you may also wish to search this free list of stocks with high insider ownership.

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.