The second-quarter results for Paycor HCM, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYCR) were released last week, making it a good time to revisit its performance. Revenues of US$160m beat expectations by a respectable 2.4%, although statutory losses per share increased. Paycor HCM lost US$0.15, which was 30% more than what the analysts had included in their models. 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. Readers will be glad to know we've aggregated the latest statutory forecasts to see whether the analysts have changed their mind on Paycor HCM after the latest results.

See our latest analysis for Paycor HCM

Following the latest results, Paycor HCM's 19 analysts are now forecasting revenues of US$653.8m in 2024. This would be a meaningful 8.1% improvement in revenue compared to the last 12 months. Losses are supposed to decline, shrinking 16% from last year to US$0.39. Before this latest report, the consensus had been expecting revenues of US$652.9m and US$0.37 per share in losses. Overall it looks as though the analysts were a bit mixed on the latest consensus updates. Although revenue forecasts held steady, the consensus also made a moderate increase in its losses per share forecasts.

As a result, there was no major change to the consensus price target of US$26.33, with the analysts implicitly confirming that the business looks to be performing in line with expectations, despite higher forecast losses. 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. There are some variant perceptions on Paycor HCM, with the most bullish analyst valuing it at US$42.00 and the most bearish at US$22.00 per share. Note the wide gap in analyst price targets? This implies to us that there is a fairly broad range of possible scenarios for the underlying business.

Another way we can view these estimates is in the context of the bigger picture, such as how the forecasts stack up against past performance, and whether forecasts are more or less bullish relative to other companies in the industry. It's pretty clear that there is an expectation that Paycor HCM's revenue growth will slow down substantially, with revenues to the end of 2024 expected to display 17% growth on an annualised basis. This is compared to a historical growth rate of 22% over the past three years. Juxtapose this against the other companies in the industry with analyst coverage, which are forecast to grow their revenues (in aggregate) 6.3% per year. So it's pretty clear that, while Paycor HCM's revenue growth is expected to slow, it's still expected to grow faster than the industry itself.