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Light & Wonder, Inc. (NASDAQ:LNW) missed earnings with its latest first-quarter results, disappointing overly-optimistic forecasters. It wasn't a great result overall - while revenue fell marginally short of analyst estimates at US$774m, statutory earnings missed forecasts by 17%, coming in at just US$0.94 per share. Earnings are an important time for investors, as they can track a company's performance, look at what the analysts are forecasting for next year, and see if there's been a change in sentiment towards the company. So we collected the latest post-earnings statutory consensus estimates to see what could be in store for next year.
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After the latest results, the 24 analysts covering Light & Wonder are now predicting revenues of US$3.42b in 2025. If met, this would reflect a satisfactory 6.6% improvement in revenue compared to the last 12 months. Per-share earnings are expected to jump 43% to US$5.71. Before this earnings report, the analysts had been forecasting revenues of US$3.46b and earnings per share (EPS) of US$5.70 in 2025. The consensus analysts don't seem to have seen anything in these results that would have changed their view on the business, given there's been no major change to their estimates.
See our latest analysis for Light & Wonder
It will come as no surprise then, to learn that the consensus price target is largely unchanged at US$113. It could also be instructive to look at the range of analyst estimates, to evaluate how different the outlier opinions are from the mean. The most optimistic Light & Wonder analyst has a price target of US$144 per share, while the most pessimistic values it at US$84.00. There are definitely some different views on the stock, but the range of estimates is not wide enough as to imply that the situation is unforecastable, in our view.
Looking at the bigger picture now, one of the ways we can make sense of these forecasts is to see how they measure up against both past performance and industry growth estimates. We can infer from the latest estimates that forecasts expect a continuation of Light & Wonder'shistorical trends, as the 8.9% annualised revenue growth to the end of 2025 is roughly in line with the 8.9% annual growth over the past five years. Juxtapose this against our data, which suggests that other companies (with analyst coverage) in the industry are forecast to see their revenues grow 9.7% per year. It's clear that while Light & Wonder's revenue growth is expected to continue on its current trajectory, it's only expected to grow in line with the industry itself.