Earnings Beat: Avient Corporation Just Beat Analyst Forecasts, And Analysts Have Been Updating Their Models

Yahoo

16-02-2025

It's been a good week for Avient Corporation (NYSE:AVNT) shareholders, because the company has just released its latest annual results, and the shares gained 2.1% to US$42.99. It looks like a credible result overall - although revenues of US$3.2b were in line with what the analysts predicted, Avient surprised by delivering a statutory profit of US$1.84 per share, a notable 14% above expectations. 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 Avient after the latest results.
See our latest analysis for Avient
Taking into account the latest results, Avient's six analysts currently expect revenues in 2025 to be US$3.29b, approximately in line with the last 12 months. Statutory earnings per share are forecast to reduce 6.2% to US$1.74 in the same period. Yet prior to the latest earnings, the analysts had been anticipated revenues of US$3.35b and earnings per share (EPS) of US$2.06 in 2025. The analysts seem less optimistic after the recent results, reducing their revenue forecasts and making a substantial drop in earnings per share numbers.
Despite the cuts to forecast earnings, there was no real change to the US$56.00 price target, showing that the analysts don't think the changes have a meaningful impact on its intrinsic value. 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 Avient analyst has a price target of US$70.00 per share, while the most pessimistic values it at US$50.00. These price targets show that analysts do have some differing views on the business, but the estimates do not vary enough to suggest to us that some are betting on wild success or utter failure.
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. It's pretty clear that there is an expectation that Avient's revenue growth will slow down substantially, with revenues to the end of 2025 expected to display 1.5% growth on an annualised basis. This is compared to a historical growth rate of 2.4% over the past five years. By way of comparison, the other companies in this industry with analyst coverage are forecast to grow their revenue at 4.4% per year. Factoring in the forecast slowdown in growth, it seems obvious that Avient is also expected to grow slower than other industry participants.
The biggest concern is that the analysts reduced their earnings per share estimates, suggesting business headwinds could lay ahead for Avient. On the negative side, they also downgraded their revenue estimates, and forecasts imply they will perform worse than the wider industry. There was no real change to the consensus price target, suggesting that the intrinsic value of the business has not undergone any major changes with the latest estimates.
Following on from that line of thought, we think that the long-term prospects of the business are much more relevant than next year's earnings. We have estimates - from multiple Avient analysts - going out to 2027, and you can see them free on our platform here.
Before you take the next step you should know about the 1 warning sign for Avient that we have uncovered.
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