Shareholders in Southwestern Energy Company (NYSE:SWN) may be thrilled to learn that the analysts have just delivered a major upgrade to their near-term forecasts. The revenue forecast for this year has experienced a facelift, with analysts now much more optimistic on its sales pipeline.

After the upgrade, the consensus from Southwestern Energy's 14 analysts is for revenues of US$8.8b in 2022, which would reflect a sizeable 24% decline in sales compared to the last year of performance. Before the latest update, the analysts were foreseeing US$8.0b of revenue in 2022. It looks like there's been a clear increase in optimism around Southwestern Energy, given the nice increase in revenue forecasts.

View our latest analysis for Southwestern Energy

Looking at the bigger picture now, one of the ways we can make sense of these forecasts is to see how they measure up against both past performance and industry growth estimates. We would highlight that sales are expected to reverse, with a forecast 42% annualised revenue decline to the end of 2022. That is a notable change from historical growth of 20% over the last five years. By contrast, our data suggests that other companies (with analyst coverage) in the industry are forecast to see their revenue decline 5.9% annually for the foreseeable future. The forecasts do look bearish for Southwestern Energy, since they're expecting it to shrink faster than the industry.

The Bottom Line

The highlight for us was that analysts increased their revenue forecasts for Southwestern Energy this year. They're also forecasting for revenues to shrink at a quicker rate than companies in the wider market. Given that analysts appear to be expecting substantial improvement in the sales pipeline, now could be the right time to take another look at Southwestern Energy.

That's a pretty serious upgrade, but shareholders might be even more pleased to know that forecasts expect Southwestern Energy to be able to reach break-even within the next few years. For more information, you can click through to our free platform to learn more about these forecasts.

Another way to search for interesting companies that could be reaching an inflection point is to track whether management are buying or selling, with our free list of growing companies that insiders are buying.

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

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