Verve Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERV) 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 Verve Therapeutics will make substantially more sales than they'd previously expected.

Following the upgrade, the current consensus from Verve Therapeutics' ten analysts is for revenues of US$21m in 2024 which - if met - would reflect a huge 28% increase on its sales over the past 12 months. Per-share losses are expected to see a sharp uptick, reaching US$2.70. Yet prior to the latest estimates, the analysts had been forecasting revenues of US$13m and losses of US$2.93 per share in 2024. So there's been quite a change-up of views after the recent consensus updates, with the analysts making a sizeable increase to their revenue forecasts while also reducing the estimated loss as the business grows towards breakeven.

View our latest analysis for Verve Therapeutics

Despite these upgrades, the analysts have not made any major changes to their price target of US$31.00, implying that their latest estimates don't have a long term impact on what they think the stock is worth.

These estimates are interesting, but it can be useful to paint some more broad strokes when seeing how forecasts compare, both to the Verve Therapeutics' past performance and to peers in the same industry. We would highlight that Verve Therapeutics' revenue growth is expected to slow, with the forecast 39% annualised growth rate until the end of 2024 being well below the historical 128% p.a. growth over the last three years. By way of comparison, the other companies in this industry with analyst coverage are forecast to grow their revenue at 18% annually. So it's pretty clear that, while Verve Therapeutics' revenue growth is expected to slow, it's still expected to grow faster than the industry itself.

The Bottom Line

The most important thing here is that analysts reduced their loss per share estimates for this year, reflecting increased optimism around Verve Therapeutics' prospects. 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 Verve Therapeutics.

These earnings upgrades look like a sterling endorsement, but before diving in - you should know that we've spotted 4 potential risks with Verve Therapeutics, including dilutive stock issuance over the past year. For more information, you can click through to our platform to learn more about this and the 3 other risks we've identified .

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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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.