Last week, you might have seen that UFP Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:UFPI) released its yearly result to the market. The early response was not positive, with shares down 7.0% to US$111 in the past week. UFP Industries reported in line with analyst predictions, delivering revenues of US$7.2b and statutory earnings per share of US$8.07, suggesting the business is executing well and in line with its plan. 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 collected the latest post-earnings statutory consensus estimates to see what could be in store for next year.

Check out our latest analysis for UFP Industries

Following last week's earnings report, UFP Industries' six analysts are forecasting 2024 revenues to be US$7.18b, approximately in line with the last 12 months. Statutory earnings per share are expected to decrease 7.5% to US$7.70 in the same period. Yet prior to the latest earnings, the analysts had been anticipated revenues of US$7.39b and earnings per share (EPS) of US$7.93 in 2024. It's pretty clear that pessimism has reared its head after the latest results, leading to a weaker revenue outlook and a minor downgrade to earnings per share estimates.

The average price target climbed 8.1% to US$120despite the reduced earnings forecasts, suggesting that this earnings impact could be a positive for the stock, once it passes. That's not the only conclusion we can draw from this data however, as some investors also like to consider the spread in estimates when evaluating analyst price targets. The most optimistic UFP Industries analyst has a price target of US$137 per share, while the most pessimistic values it at US$102. Even so, with a relatively close grouping of estimates, it looks like the analysts are quite confident in their valuations, suggesting UFP Industries is an easy business to forecast or the the analysts are all using similar assumptions.

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. We would highlight that revenue is expected to reverse, with a forecast 0.5% annualised decline to the end of 2024. That is a notable change from historical growth of 17% over the last five years. By contrast, our data suggests that other companies (with analyst coverage) in the same industry are forecast to see their revenue grow 5.2% annually for the foreseeable future. So although its revenues are forecast to shrink, this cloud does not come with a silver lining - UFP Industries is expected to lag the wider industry.