Safe Bulkers, Inc. (NYSE:SB) just released its full-year report and things are looking bullish. Results were good overall, with revenues beating analyst predictions by 7.1% to hit US$284m. Statutory earnings per share (EPS) came in at US$0.61, some 6.2% above whatthe analysts had 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. We thought readers would find it interesting to see the analysts latest (statutory) post-earnings forecasts for next year.

View our latest analysis for Safe Bulkers

Taking into account the latest results, the consensus forecast from Safe Bulkers' four analysts is for revenues of US$300.6m in 2024. This reflects an okay 5.7% improvement in revenue compared to the last 12 months. Per-share earnings are expected to accumulate 5.7% to US$0.66. Yet prior to the latest earnings, the analysts had been anticipated revenues of US$302.8m and earnings per share (EPS) of US$0.65 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.

There were no changes to revenue or earnings estimates or the price target of US$4.29, suggesting that the company has met expectations in its recent result. It could also be instructive to look at the range of analyst estimates, to evaluate how different the outlier opinions are from the mean. The most optimistic Safe Bulkers analyst has a price target of US$5.70 per share, while the most pessimistic values it at US$2.85. This is a fairly broad spread of estimates, suggesting that analysts are forecasting a wide range of possible outcomes for 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 Safe Bulkers' revenue growth is expected to slow, with the forecast 5.7% annualised growth rate until the end of 2024 being well below the historical 14% p.a. growth over the last five years. Juxtapose this against the other companies in the industry with analyst coverage, which are forecast to grow their revenues (in aggregate) 0.3% per year. Even after the forecast slowdown in growth, it seems obvious that Safe Bulkers is also expected to grow faster than the wider industry.