Last week saw the newest quarterly earnings release from Clearway Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CWEN), an important milestone in the company's journey to build a stronger business. Revenues of US$354m beat expectations by a respectable 3.9%, although statutory losses per share increased. Clearway Energy lost US$1.35, which was 186% more than what the analysts had included in their models. Following the result, the analysts have updated their earnings model, and it would be good to know whether they think there's been a strong change in the company's prospects, or if it's business as usual. So we collected the latest post-earnings statutory consensus estimates to see what could be in store for next year.

Following the latest results, Clearway Energy's seven analysts are now forecasting revenues of US$1.72b in 2026. This would be a notable 16% improvement in revenue compared to the last 12 months. The company is forecast to report a statutory loss of US$0.55 in 2026, a sharp decline from a profit over the last year. Before this earnings report, the analysts had been forecasting revenues of US$1.64b and earnings per share (EPS) of US$0.18 in 2026. While they've upgraded their revenue numbers for next year, the consensus also expects losses to increase, perhaps due to the investments required to fund that growth In any event, it's not clear that these new estimates are particularly bullish.

The consensus price target stayed unchanged at US$42.55, seeming to suggest that higher forecast losses are not expected to have a long term impact on the valuation. 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. There are some variant perceptions on Clearway Energy, with the most bullish analyst valuing it at US$56.00 and the most bearish at US$34.00 per share. 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 clear from the latest estimates that Clearway Energy's rate of growth is expected to accelerate meaningfully, with the forecast 21% annualised revenue growth to the end of 2026 noticeably faster than its historical growth of 3.6% p.a. over the past five years. By contrast, our data suggests that other companies (with analyst coverage) in a similar industry are forecast to grow their revenue at 7.9% per year. Factoring in the forecast acceleration in revenue, it's pretty clear that Clearway Energy is expected to grow much faster than its industry.

The Bottom Line

The most important thing to take away is that the analysts are expecting Clearway Energy to become unprofitable next year. Happily, they also upgraded their revenue estimates, and are forecasting them to grow faster 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.

With that said, the long-term trajectory of the company's earnings is a lot more important than next year. We have forecasts for Clearway Energy going out to 2028, and you can see them free on our platform here.

You should always think about risks though.

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.