Shareholders in Blue Bird Corporation (NASDAQ:BLBD) may be thrilled to learn that the analysts have just delivered a major upgrade to their near-term forecasts. The analysts have sharply increased their revenue numbers, with a view that Blue Bird will make substantially more sales than they'd previously expected. The market may be pricing in some blue sky too, with the share price gaining 13% to US$71.02 in the last 7 days. It will be interesting to see if today's upgrade is enough to propel the stock even higher.

Following the upgrade, the latest consensus from Blue Bird's seven analysts is for revenues of US$1.7b in 2026, which would reflect a solid 13% improvement in sales compared to the last 12 months. Per-share earnings are expected to rise 8.5% to US$4.56. Before this latest update, the analysts had been forecasting revenues of US$1.5b and earnings per share (EPS) of US$4.32 in 2026. The forecasts seem more optimistic now, with a nice gain to revenue and a slight bump in earnings per share estimates.

It will come as no surprise to learn that the analysts have increased their price target for Blue Bird 18% to US$81.71 on the back of these upgrades.

Taking a look at the bigger picture now, one of the ways we can understand these forecasts is to see how they compare to both past performance and industry growth estimates. The analysts are definitely expecting Blue Bird's growth to accelerate, with the forecast 28% annualised growth to the end of 2026 ranking favourably alongside historical growth of 17% per annum 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 6.1% per year. Factoring in the forecast acceleration in revenue, it's pretty clear that Blue Bird is expected to grow much faster than its industry.

The Bottom Line

The biggest takeaway for us from these new estimates is that analysts upgraded their earnings per share estimates, with improved earnings power expected for this year. They also upgraded their revenue estimates for this year, and sales are expected to grow faster than the wider market. There was also an increase in the price target, suggesting that there is more optimism baked into the forecasts than there was previously. Given that analysts appear to be expecting substantial improvement in the sales pipeline, now could be the right time to take another look at Blue Bird.

Better yet, our automated discounted cash flow calculation (DCF) suggests Blue Bird could be moderately undervalued. For more information, you can click through to our platform to learn more about our valuation approach.

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 backed by insiders.

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.