Peoples Bancorp Inc. (NASDAQ:PEBO) shareholders are probably feeling a little disappointed, since its shares fell 2.9% to US$30.22 in the week after its latest yearly results. Revenues came in 4.4% below expectations, at US$412m. Statutory earnings per share were relatively better off, with a per-share profit of US$3.44 being roughly in line with analyst estimates. Following the result, the analysts have updated their earnings model, and it would be good to know whether they think there's been a strong change in the company's prospects, or if it's business as usual. So we gathered the latest post-earnings forecasts to see what estimates suggest is in store for next year.

Check out our latest analysis for Peoples Bancorp

Taking into account the latest results, the current consensus from Peoples Bancorp's six analysts is for revenues of US$443.1m in 2024. This would reflect an okay 7.7% increase on its revenue over the past 12 months. Per-share earnings are expected to rise 4.1% to US$3.37. Yet prior to the latest earnings, the analysts had been anticipated revenues of US$462.6m and earnings per share (EPS) of US$3.71 in 2024. It's pretty clear that pessimism has reared its head after the latest results, leading to a weaker revenue outlook and a small dip in earnings per share estimates.

The analysts made no major changes to their price target of US$35.40, suggesting the downgrades are not expected to have a long-term impact on Peoples Bancorp's valuation. It could also be instructive to look at the range of analyst estimates, to evaluate how different the outlier opinions are from the mean. There are some variant perceptions on Peoples Bancorp, with the most bullish analyst valuing it at US$38.00 and the most bearish at US$34.00 per share. With such a narrow range of valuations, the analysts apparently share similar views on what they think the business is worth.

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 Peoples Bancorp's revenue growth will slow down substantially, with revenues to the end of 2024 expected to display 7.7% growth on an annualised basis. This is compared to a historical growth rate of 18% over the past five years. Juxtapose this against the other companies in the industry with analyst coverage, which are forecast to grow their revenues (in aggregate) 5.5% per year. Even after the forecast slowdown in growth, it seems obvious that Peoples Bancorp is also expected to grow faster than the wider industry.