A week ago, Silk Road Medical, Inc (NASDAQ:SILK) came out with a strong set of full-year numbers that could potentially lead to a re-rate of the stock. Silk Road Medical beat expectations with revenues of US$177m arriving 3.1% ahead of forecasts. The company also reported a statutory loss of US$1.44, 3.7% smaller than was 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. 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 Silk Road Medical

Taking into account the latest results, the most recent consensus for Silk Road Medical from nine analysts is for revenues of US$195.7m in 2024. If met, it would imply a decent 10% increase on its revenue over the past 12 months. The loss per share is expected to ameliorate slightly, reducing to US$1.38. Yet prior to the latest earnings, the analysts had been forecasting revenues of US$191.4m and losses of US$1.46 per share in 2024. It looks like there's been a modest increase in sentiment in the recent updates, with the analysts becoming a bit more optimistic in their predictions for both revenues and losses per share.

It will come as no surprise to learn thatthe analysts have increased their price target for Silk Road Medical 26% to US$18.43on the back of these upgrades. 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. Currently, the most bullish analyst values Silk Road Medical at US$28.00 per share, while the most bearish prices it at US$8.00. 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.

Taking a look at the bigger picture now, one of the ways we can understand these forecasts is to see how they compare to both past performance and industry growth estimates. We would highlight that Silk Road Medical's revenue growth is expected to slow, with the forecast 10% annualised growth rate until the end of 2024 being well below the historical 28% p.a. growth over the last five years. By way of comparison, the other companies in this industry with analyst coverage are forecast to grow their revenue at 7.8% annually. So it's pretty clear that, while Silk Road Medical's revenue growth is expected to slow, it's still expected to grow faster than the industry itself.