Liberty Global Ltd. (NASDAQ:LBTY.A) shareholders are probably feeling a little disappointed, since its shares fell 4.8% to US$19.81 in the week after its latest quarterly results. It was a pretty bad result overall; while revenues were in line with expectations at US$1.9b, statutory losses exploded to US$3.95 per share. Earnings are an important time for investors, as they can track a company's performance, look at what the analysts are forecasting for next year, and see if there's been a change in sentiment towards the company. So we gathered the latest post-earnings forecasts to see what estimates suggest is in store for next year.
See our latest analysis for Liberty Global
Taking into account the latest results, Liberty Global's 13 analysts currently expect revenues in 2025 to be US$7.80b, approximately in line with the last 12 months. Losses are predicted to fall substantially, shrinking 74% to US$3.01. Before this latest report, the consensus had been expecting revenues of US$7.80b and US$3.00 per share in losses.
The average price target fell 9.4% to US$26.49, with the ongoing losses seemingly a concern for the analysts, despite the lack of real change to the earnings forecasts. 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. The most optimistic Liberty Global analyst has a price target of US$53.00 per share, while the most pessimistic values it at US$20.00. With such a wide range in price targets, analysts are almost certainly betting on widely divergent outcomes in the underlying business. As a result it might not be a great idea to make decisions based on the consensus price target, which is after all just an average of this wide range of estimates.
These estimates are interesting, but it can be useful to paint some more broad strokes when seeing how forecasts compare, both to the Liberty Global's past performance and to peers in the same industry. It's also worth noting that the years of declining revenue look to have come to an end, with the forecast stauing flat to the end of 2025. Historically, Liberty Global's top line has shrunk approximately 12% annually over the past five years. By contrast, our data suggests that other companies (with analyst coverage) in a similar industry are forecast to see their revenue grow 3.3% per year. So it's pretty clear that, although revenues are improving, Liberty Global is still expected to grow slower than the industry.
The most important thing to take away is that the analysts reconfirmed their loss per share estimates for next year. On the plus side, there were no major changes to revenue estimates; although forecasts imply they will perform worse than the wider industry. There was also a nice increase in the price target, with the analysts clearly feeling that the intrinsic value of the business is improving.
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 Liberty Global analysts - going out to 2026, and you can see them free on our platform here.
Plus, you should also learn about the 2 warning signs we've spotted with Liberty Global (including 1 which makes us a bit uncomfortable) .
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