Investors in Barrett Business Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:BBSI) had a good week, as its shares rose 4.2% to close at US$120 following the release of its full-year results. Barrett Business Services reported US$1.1b in revenue, roughly in line with analyst forecasts, although statutory earnings per share (EPS) of US$7.39 beat expectations, being 3.6% higher than what the analysts expected. This is an important time for investors, as they can track a company's performance in its report, look at what experts are forecasting for next year, and see if there has been any change to expectations for the business. With this in mind, we've gathered the latest statutory forecasts to see what the analysts are expecting for next year.

See our latest analysis for Barrett Business Services

Taking into account the latest results, the most recent consensus for Barrett Business Services from four analysts is for revenues of US$1.16b in 2024. If met, it would imply a decent 8.3% increase on its revenue over the past 12 months. Statutory per-share earnings are expected to be US$7.66, roughly flat on the last 12 months. In the lead-up to this report, the analysts had been modelling revenues of US$1.15b and earnings per share (EPS) of US$7.70 in 2024. So it's pretty clear that, although the analysts have updated their estimates, there's been no major change in expectations for the business following the latest results.

With the analysts reconfirming their revenue and earnings forecasts, it's surprising to see that the price target rose 9.9% to US$144. It looks as though they previously had some doubts over whether the business would live up to their expectations. Fixating on a single price target can be unwise though, since the consensus target is effectively the average of analyst price targets. As a result, some investors like to look at the range of estimates to see if there are any diverging opinions on the company's valuation. There are some variant perceptions on Barrett Business Services, with the most bullish analyst valuing it at US$159 and the most bearish at US$135 per share. Still, with such a tight range of estimates, it suggeststhe analysts have a pretty good idea of what they think the company is worth.

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. It's clear from the latest estimates that Barrett Business Services' rate of growth is expected to accelerate meaningfully, with the forecast 8.3% annualised revenue growth to the end of 2024 noticeably faster than its historical growth of 3.4% p.a. over the past five years. By contrast, our data suggests that other companies (with analyst coverage) in a similar industry are forecast to grow their revenue at 6.4% per year. It seems obvious that, while the growth outlook is brighter than the recent past, the analysts also expect Barrett Business Services to grow faster than the wider industry.