It's been a good week for Tower Semiconductor Ltd. (NASDAQ:TSEM) shareholders, because the company has just released its latest second-quarter results, and the shares gained 5.6% to US$42.88. It looks like a credible result overall - although revenues of US$351m were what the analysts expected, Tower Semiconductor surprised by delivering a (statutory) profit of US$0.48 per share, an impressive 23% above what was forecast. 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. We thought readers would find it interesting to see the analysts latest (statutory) post-earnings forecasts for next year.

See our latest analysis for Tower Semiconductor

Taking into account the latest results, the current consensus from Tower Semiconductor's four analysts is for revenues of US$1.43b in 2024. This would reflect a credible 2.9% increase on its revenue over the past 12 months. Statutory earnings per share are expected to plunge 59% to US$1.83 in the same period. Yet prior to the latest earnings, the analysts had been anticipated revenues of US$1.43b and earnings per share (EPS) of US$1.65 in 2024. There was no real change to the revenue estimates, but the analysts do seem more bullish on earnings, given the nice gain to earnings per share expectations following these results.

The consensus price target rose 12% to US$53.00, suggesting that higher earnings estimates flow through to the stock's valuation as well. The consensus price target is just an average of individual analyst targets, so - it could be handy to see how wide the range of underlying estimates is. Currently, the most bullish analyst values Tower Semiconductor at US$55.00 per share, while the most bearish prices it at US$48.00. With such a narrow range of valuations, the analysts apparently share similar views on what they think the business is worth.

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. The analysts are definitely expecting Tower Semiconductor's growth to accelerate, with the forecast 5.8% annualised growth to the end of 2024 ranking favourably alongside historical growth of 4.7% per annum over the past five years. Compare this with other companies in the same industry, which are forecast to see revenue growth of 18% annually. It seems obvious that, while the future growth outlook is brighter than the recent past, Tower Semiconductor is expected to grow slower than the wider industry.