Celebrations may be in order for Guild Holdings Company (NYSE:GHLD) shareholders, with the analysts delivering a significant upgrade to their statutory estimates for the company. 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. Investor sentiment seems to be improving too, with the share price up 7.5% to US$15.03 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.

After the upgrade, the five analysts covering Guild Holdings are now predicting revenues of US$1.1b in 2024. If met, this would reflect a substantial 26% improvement in sales compared to the last 12 months. Per-share earnings are expected to bounce 226% to US$1.42. Prior to this update, the analysts had been forecasting revenues of US$928m and earnings per share (EPS) of US$1.15 in 2024. So we can see there's been a pretty clear increase in analyst sentiment in recent times, with both revenues and earnings per share receiving a decent lift in the latest estimates.

Of course, another way to look at these forecasts is to place them into context against the industry itself. For example, we noticed that Guild Holdings' rate of growth is expected to accelerate meaningfully, with revenues forecast to exhibit 36% growth to the end of 2024 on an annualised basis. That is well above its historical decline of 35% a year over the past three years. By contrast, our data suggests that other companies (with analyst coverage) in the industry are forecast to see their revenue grow 3.7% per year. Not only are Guild Holdings' revenues expected to improve, it seems that the analysts are also expecting it to grow 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. They also upgraded their revenue estimates for this year, and sales are expected to grow faster than the wider market. The clear improvement in sentiment should be enough to get most shareholders feeling more optimistic about Guild Holdings' future.

Analysts are definitely bullish on Guild Holdings, but no company is perfect. Indeed, you should know that there are several potential concerns to be aware of, including its declining profit margins. You can learn more, and discover the 1 other concern we've identified, for 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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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.