Shareholders might have noticed that Fresenius Medical Care AG (ETR:FME) filed its full-year result this time last week. The early response was not positive, with shares down 7.5% to €35.90 in the past week. Fresenius Medical Care reported in line with analyst predictions, delivering revenues of €19b and statutory earnings per share of €1.70, suggesting the business is executing well and in line with its plan. The analysts typically update their forecasts at each earnings report, and we can judge from their estimates whether their view of the company has changed or if there are any new concerns to be aware of. We thought readers would find it interesting to see the analysts latest (statutory) post-earnings forecasts for next year.

Check out our latest analysis for Fresenius Medical Care

Following last week's earnings report, Fresenius Medical Care's 20 analysts are forecasting 2024 revenues to be €19.8b, approximately in line with the last 12 months. Statutory earnings per share are predicted to leap 45% to €2.46. Before this earnings report, the analysts had been forecasting revenues of €19.8b and earnings per share (EPS) of €2.49 in 2024. 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.

The analysts reconfirmed their price target of €40.65, showing that the business is executing well and in line with expectations. There's another way to think about price targets though, and that's to look at the range of price targets put forward by analysts, because a wide range of estimates could suggest a diverse view on possible outcomes for the business. The most optimistic Fresenius Medical Care analyst has a price target of €71.00 per share, while the most pessimistic values it at €26.00. As you can see the range of estimates is wide, with the lowest valuation coming in at less than half the most bullish estimate, suggesting there are some strongly diverging views on how analysts think this business will perform. With this in mind, we wouldn't rely too heavily the consensus price target, as it is just an average and analysts clearly have some deeply divergent views on the business.

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 would highlight that Fresenius Medical Care's revenue growth is expected to slow, with the forecast 1.7% annualised growth rate until the end of 2024 being well below the historical 3.2% p.a. growth over the last five years. By contrast, our data suggests that other companies (with analyst coverage) in a similar industry are forecast to see their revenue shrink 0.2% per year. Factoring in the forecast slowdown in growth, it's pretty clear that Fresenius Medical Care is still expected to grow faster than the wider industry.