Shandong Gold Mining Co., Ltd. (SHSE:600547) shareholders will have a reason to smile today, with the analysts making substantial upgrades to this year's statutory forecasts. The consensus estimated revenue numbers rose, with their view now clearly much more bullish on the company's business prospects.

Following the latest upgrade, Shandong Gold Mining's eleven analysts currently expect revenues in 2024 to be CN¥79b, approximately in line with the last 12 months. Statutory earnings per share are presumed to jump 84% to CN¥0.89. Previously, the analysts had been modelling revenues of CN¥69b and earnings per share (EPS) of CN¥0.89 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.

It may not be a surprise to see that the analysts have reconfirmed their price target of CN¥30.97, implying that the uplift in sales is not expected to greatly contribute to Shandong Gold Mining's valuation in the near term.

These estimates are interesting, but it can be useful to paint some more broad strokes when seeing how forecasts compare, both to the Shandong Gold Mining's past performance and to peers in the same industry. For example, we noticed that Shandong Gold Mining's rate of growth is expected to accelerate meaningfully, with revenues forecast to exhibit 2.4% growth to the end of 2024 on an annualised basis. That is well above its historical decline of 1.3% a year over the past five years. Compare this against analyst estimates for the broader industry, which suggest that (in aggregate) industry revenues are expected to grow 9.4% annually for the foreseeable future. Although Shandong Gold Mining's revenues are expected to improve, it seems that the analysts are still bearish on the business, forecasting it to grow slower than the broader industry.

The Bottom Line

The most obvious conclusion from this consensus update is that there's been no major change in the business' prospects in recent times, with analysts holding earnings per share steady, in line with previous estimates. Fortunately, they also upgraded their revenue estimates, and are forecasting revenues to grow slower than the wider market. Given that analysts appear to be expecting substantial improvement in the sales pipeline, now could be the right time to take another look at Shandong Gold Mining.

Even so, the longer term trajectory of the business is much more important for the value creation of shareholders. At Simply Wall St, we have a full range of analyst estimates for Shandong Gold Mining 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.