CRISPR Therapeutics AG (NASDAQ:CRSP) shareholders will have a reason to smile today, with the analysts making substantial upgrades to this year's statutory forecasts. The revenue forecast for this year has experienced a facelift, with the analysts now much more optimistic on its sales pipeline.

Following the latest upgrade, the 21 analysts covering CRISPR Therapeutics provided consensus estimates of US$151m revenue in 2024, which would reflect a painful 44% decline on its sales over the past 12 months. Losses are supposed to balloon 111% to US$5.40 per share. However, before this estimates update, the consensus had been expecting revenues of US$121m and US$5.49 per share in losses. So there's been quite a change-up of views after the recent consensus updates, withthe analysts noticeably increasing their revenue forecasts while also expecting losses per share to hold steady.

See our latest analysis for CRISPR Therapeutics

There were no major changes to the US$87.52 consensus price target despite the higher revenue estimates, with the analysts seeming to believe that ongoing losses have a larger impact on the valuation than growing sales.

These estimates are interesting, but it can be useful to paint some more broad strokes when seeing how forecasts compare, both to the CRISPR Therapeutics' past performance and to peers in the same industry. These estimates imply that sales are expected to slow, with a forecast annualised revenue decline of 54% by the end of 2024. This indicates a significant reduction from annual growth of 7.2% over the last five years. By contrast, our data suggests that other companies (with analyst coverage) in the same industry are forecast to see their revenue grow 19% annually for the foreseeable future. So although its revenues are forecast to shrink, this cloud does not come with a silver lining - CRISPR Therapeutics is expected to lag the wider industry.

The Bottom Line

The most important thing here is that analysts reduced their loss per share estimates for this year, reflecting increased optimism around CRISPR Therapeutics' prospects. Fortunately, they also upgraded their revenue estimates, and are forecasting revenues to grow slower than the wider market. Seeing the dramatic upgrade to this year's forecasts, it might be time to take another look at CRISPR Therapeutics.

With that said, the long-term trajectory of the company's earnings is a lot more important than next year. At Simply Wall St, we have a full range of analyst estimates for CRISPR Therapeutics going out to 2026, 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.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.

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.