One thing we could say about the analysts on MVB Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:MVBF) - they aren't optimistic, having just made a major negative revision to their near-term (statutory) forecasts for the organization. There was a fairly draconian cut to their revenue estimates, perhaps an implicit admission that previous forecasts were much too optimistic.

Following the downgrade, the latest consensus from MVB Financial's twin analysts is for revenues of US$157m in 2023, which would reflect a solid 14% improvement in sales compared to the last 12 months. Per-share earnings are expected to leap 112% to US$2.60. Previously, the analysts had been modelling revenues of US$183m and earnings per share (EPS) of US$2.87 in 2023. Indeed, we can see that analyst sentiment has declined measurably after the new consensus came out, with a substantial drop in revenue estimates and a small dip in EPS estimates to boot.

See our latest analysis for MVB Financial

These estimates are interesting, but it can be useful to paint some more broad strokes when seeing how forecasts compare, both to the MVB Financial's past performance and to peers in the same industry. The analysts are definitely expecting MVB Financial's growth to accelerate, with the forecast 20% annualised growth to the end of 2023 ranking favourably alongside historical growth of 9.8% per annum over the past five years. Compare this with other companies in the same industry, which are forecast to grow their revenue 3.0% annually. Factoring in the forecast acceleration in revenue, it's pretty clear that MVB Financial is expected to grow much faster than its industry.

The Bottom Line

The most important thing to take away is that analysts cut their earnings per share estimates, expecting a clear decline in business conditions. While analysts did downgrade their revenue estimates, these forecasts still imply revenues will perform better than the wider market. Often, one downgrade can set off a daisy-chain of cuts, especially if an industry is in decline. So we wouldn't be surprised if the market became a lot more cautious on MVB Financial after today.

With that said, the long-term trajectory of the company's earnings is a lot more important than next year. At least one analyst has provided forecasts out to 2024, which can be seen for free on our platform here.

Of course, seeing company management invest large sums of money in a stock can be just as useful as knowing whether analysts are downgrading their estimates. So you may also wish to search this free list of stocks that insiders are buying.

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