Primis Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:FRST) shareholders will have a reason to smile today, with the analysts making substantial upgrades to this year's forecasts. Consensus estimates suggest investors could expect greatly increased statutory revenues and earnings per share, with analysts modelling a real improvement in business performance. Investor sentiment seems to be improving too, with the share price up 8.9% to US$13.67 over the past 7 days. It will be interesting to see if this latest upgrade is enough to kickstart further buying interest in the stock.

Following the upgrade, the latest consensus from Primis Financial's three analysts is for revenues of US$146m in 2024, which would reflect a reasonable 7.8% improvement in sales compared to the last 12 months. Statutory earnings per share are presumed to bounce 310% to US$1.65. Previously, the analysts had been modelling revenues of US$112m and earnings per share (EPS) of US$1.37 in 2024. There has definitely been an improvement in perception recently, with the analysts substantially increasing both their earnings and revenue estimates.

View our latest analysis for Primis Financial

Although the analysts have upgraded their earnings estimates, there was no change to the consensus price target of US$13.75, suggesting that the forecast performance does not have a long term impact on the company's valuation.

One way to get more context on these forecasts is to look at how they compare to both past performance, and how other companies in the same industry are performing. The period to the end of 2024 brings more of the same, according to the analysts, with revenue forecast to display 7.8% growth on an annualised basis. That is in line with its 7.8% annual growth over the past five years. By contrast, our data suggests that other companies (with analyst coverage) in a similar industry are forecast to see their revenues grow 5.7% per year. So it's pretty clear that Primis Financial is forecast to grow substantially faster than its 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. They also upgraded their revenue estimates for this year, and sales are expected to grow faster than the wider market. The lack of change in the price target is puzzling, but with a serious upgrade to this year's earnings expectations, it might be time to take another look at Primis Financial.

Even so, the longer term trajectory of the business is much more important for the value creation of shareholders. We have estimates - from multiple Primis Financial analysts - going out to 2025, 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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