Shareholders in Arcutis Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARQT) may be thrilled to learn that the analysts have just delivered a major upgrade to their near-term forecasts. The consensus estimated revenue numbers rose, with their view now clearly much more bullish on the company's business prospects.

Following the upgrade, the most recent consensus for Arcutis Biotherapeutics from its six analysts is for revenues of US$117m in 2024 which, if met, would be a sizeable 97% increase on its sales over the past 12 months. The loss per share is expected to ameliorate slightly, reducing to US$2.21. Yet before this consensus update, the analysts had been forecasting revenues of US$106m and losses of US$2.35 per share in 2024. So there's been quite a change-up of views after the recent consensus updates, with the analysts making a sizeable increase to their revenue forecasts while also reducing the estimated loss as the business grows towards breakeven.

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. We can infer from the latest estimates that forecasts expect a continuation of Arcutis Biotherapeutics'historical trends, as the 97% annualised revenue growth to the end of 2024 is roughly in line with the 100% annual revenue growth over the past five years. Compare this with the broader industry, which analyst estimates (in aggregate) suggest will see revenues grow 17% annually. So it's pretty clear that Arcutis Biotherapeutics is forecast to grow substantially faster than its 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 Arcutis Biotherapeutics' prospects. Fortunately, analysts also upgraded their revenue estimates, and our data indicates sales are expected to perform better than the wider market. Seeing the dramatic upgrade to this year's forecasts, it might be time to take another look at Arcutis Biotherapeutics.

These earnings upgrades look like a sterling endorsement, but before diving in - you should know that we've spotted 3 potential flags with Arcutis Biotherapeutics, including major dilution from new stock issuance in the past year. For more information, you can click through to our platform to learn more about this and the 2 other flags we've identified .

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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