Last week saw the newest second-quarter earnings release from W.W. Grainger, Inc. (NYSE:GWW), an important milestone in the company's journey to build a stronger business. W.W. Grainger reported in line with analyst predictions, delivering revenues of US$4.3b and statutory earnings per share of US$9.51, suggesting the business is executing well and in line with its plan. 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. With this in mind, we've gathered the latest statutory forecasts to see what the analysts are expecting for next year.

Following the latest results, W.W. Grainger's 16 analysts are now forecasting revenues of US$17.3b in 2024. This would be a reasonable 3.0% improvement in revenue compared to the last 12 months. Per-share earnings are expected to rise 4.0% to US$38.76. Yet prior to the latest earnings, the analysts had been anticipated revenues of US$17.4b and earnings per share (EPS) of US$39.12 in 2024. The consensus analysts don't seem to have seen anything in these results that would have changed their view on the business, given there's been no major change to their estimates.

The analysts reconfirmed their price target of US$979, showing that the business is executing well and in line with expectations. 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. There are some variant perceptions on W.W. Grainger, with the most bullish analyst valuing it at US$1,250 and the most bearish at US$570 per share. Note the wide gap in analyst price targets? This implies to us that there is a fairly broad range of possible scenarios for the underlying business.

Looking at the bigger picture now, one of the ways we can make sense of these forecasts is to see how they measure up against both past performance and industry growth estimates. It's pretty clear that there is an expectation that W.W. Grainger's revenue growth will slow down substantially, with revenues to the end of 2024 expected to display 6.1% growth on an annualised basis. This is compared to a historical growth rate of 9.4% over the past five years. Juxtapose this against the other companies in the industry with analyst coverage, which are forecast to grow their revenues (in aggregate) 5.6% annually. So it's pretty clear that, while W.W. Grainger's revenue growth is expected to slow, it's expected to grow roughly in line with the industry.

The Bottom Line

The most important thing to take away is that there's been no major change in sentiment, with the analysts reconfirming that the business is performing in line with their previous earnings per share estimates. Happily, there were no real changes to revenue forecasts, with the business still expected to grow in line with the overall industry. There was no real change to the consensus price target, suggesting that the intrinsic value of the business has not undergone any major changes with the latest estimates.

Following on from that line of thought, we think that 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 W.W. Grainger going out to 2026, and you can see them free on our platform here..

Even so, be aware that W.W. Grainger is showing 1 warning sign in our investment analysis , you should know about...

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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.

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