Shareholders in Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NASDAQ:CHK) 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 the analysts now much more optimistic on its sales pipeline.

After the upgrade, the consensus from Chesapeake Energy's seven analysts is for revenues of US$2.9b in 2024, which would reflect a stressful 41% decline in sales compared to the last year of performance. Prior to the latest estimates, the analysts were forecasting revenues of US$2.6b in 2024. The consensus has definitely become more optimistic, showing a nice gain to revenue forecasts.

View our latest analysis for Chesapeake Energy

There was no particular change to the consensus price target of US$104, with Chesapeake Energy's latest outlook seemingly not enough to result in a change of valuation.

These estimates are interesting, but it can be useful to paint some more broad strokes when seeing how forecasts compare, both to the Chesapeake Energy's past performance and to peers in the same industry. These estimates imply that sales are expected to slow, with a forecast annualised revenue decline of 50% by the end of 2024. This indicates a significant reduction from annual growth of 3.3% over the last five years. Compare this with our data, which suggests that other companies in the same industry are, in aggregate, expected to see their revenue grow 2.1% per year. It's pretty clear that Chesapeake Energy's revenues are expected to perform substantially worse than the wider industry.

The Bottom Line

The most important thing to take away from this upgrade is that analysts lifted their revenue estimates for this year. They also expect company revenue to perform worse than the wider market. Seeing the dramatic upgrade to this year's forecasts, it might be time to take another look at Chesapeake Energy.

Need some more information? We have analyst estimates for Chesapeake Energy going out to 2026, and you can see them free on our platform here.

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.