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Schlumberger Limited (NYSE:SLB) shareholders are probably feeling a little disappointed, since its shares fell 6.3% to US$39.01 in the week after its latest first-quarter results. Schlumberger reported US$6.0b in revenue, roughly in line with analyst forecasts, although statutory earnings per share (EPS) of US$0.36 beat expectations, being 7.8% higher than what the analysts expected. Following the result, the analysts have updated their earnings model, and it would be good to know whether they think there's been a strong change in the company's prospects, or if it's business as usual. We've gathered the most recent statutory forecasts to see whether the analysts have changed their earnings models, following these results.
View our latest analysis for Schlumberger
Taking into account the latest results, the most recent consensus for Schlumberger from 25 analysts is for revenues of US$26.2b in 2022 which, if met, would be a notable 11% increase on its sales over the past 12 months. Statutory earnings per share are predicted to surge 27% to US$1.88. In the lead-up to this report, the analysts had been modelling revenues of US$26.0b and earnings per share (EPS) of US$1.88 in 2022. 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.
It will come as no surprise then, to learn that the consensus price target is largely unchanged at US$49.51. That's not the only conclusion we can draw from this data however, as some investors also like to consider the spread in estimates when evaluating analyst price targets. The most optimistic Schlumberger analyst has a price target of US$55.00 per share, while the most pessimistic values it at US$31.00. This shows there is still a bit of diversity in estimates, but analysts don't appear to be totally split on the stock as though it might be a success or failure situation.
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. For example, we noticed that Schlumberger's rate of growth is expected to accelerate meaningfully, with revenues forecast to exhibit 14% growth to the end of 2022 on an annualised basis. That is well above its historical decline of 6.4% a year over the past five years. By contrast, our data suggests that other companies (with analyst coverage) in the industry are forecast to see their revenue grow 9.9% per year. So it looks like Schlumberger is expected to grow faster than its competitors, at least for a while.