Shareholders in Silence Therapeutics plc (NASDAQ:SLN) may be thrilled to learn that the analysts have just delivered a major upgrade to their near-term forecasts. The analysts greatly increased their revenue estimates, suggesting a stark improvement in business fundamentals.

After this upgrade, Silence Therapeutics' four analysts are now forecasting revenues of UK£26m in 2024. This would be an okay 3.7% improvement in sales compared to the last 12 months. The loss per share is anticipated to greatly reduce in the near future, narrowing 61% to UK£0.37. Yet before this consensus update, the analysts had been forecasting revenues of UK£23m and losses of UK£0.74 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.

It will come as no surprise to learn that the analysts have increased their price target for Silence Therapeutics 13% to US$55.80 on the back of these upgrades.

Of course, another way to look at these forecasts is to place them into context against the industry itself. It's pretty clear that there is an expectation that Silence Therapeutics' revenue growth will slow down substantially, with revenues to the end of 2024 expected to display 3.7% growth on an annualised basis. This is compared to a historical growth rate of 58% over the past five years. Compare this against other companies (with analyst forecasts) in the industry, which are in aggregate expected to see revenue growth of 18% annually. Factoring in the forecast slowdown in growth, it seems obvious that Silence Therapeutics is also expected to grow slower than other industry participants.

The Bottom Line

The most important thing here is that analysts reduced their loss per share estimates for this year, reflecting increased optimism around Silence Therapeutics' prospects. Pleasantly, analysts also upgraded their revenue estimates, and their forecasts suggest the business is expected to grow slower than the wider market. Given that the consensus looks almost universally bullish, with a substantial increase to forecasts and a higher price target, Silence Therapeutics could be worth investigating further.

Analysts are clearly in love with Silence Therapeutics at the moment, but before diving in - you should be aware that we've identified some warning flags with the business, such as dilutive stock issuance over 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 .

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

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