FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - Shares in German commercial vehicle manufacturers were in demand on Monday. According to experts, the VW subsidiary Traton had presented strong figures before the weekend, but after a record high for the shares, investors initially cashed out on Friday. On Monday, however, they took action again. The shares rose by more than 4 percent in the meantime. In the late morning, they were still up just under 3.7 percent.

Daimler Truck shares rose by 1.7 percent on Monday. Daimler Truck was thus among the best DAX stocks.

Experts were optimistic about Traton on Monday. Bankhaus Metzler and Oddo BHF, among others, issued target increases to or into the 40-euro range. Deutsche Bank sees particularly high potential, raising its price target to EUR 55 and thus still seeing around 60 percent upside potential, although the Traton share has already made gains of this magnitude in 2024.

Deutsche Bank expert Nicolai Kempf praised Traton's strong start to the year and emphasized that there was no sign of a slowdown at the company. The subsidiary Scania is once again achieving record-high margins and MAN is improving its profitability. He also expects Navistar to improve over the course of the year due to the introduction of new engines. In his opinion, the US subsidiary should become the next big profit driver in 2025.

Kempf also emphasized that the first quarter makes the forecast for the 2024 financial year appear rather cautious. During the conference call, the management had already signaled that it was aiming for the upper end of the target range. The Traton management is targeting a range of minus 5 to plus 10 percent for sales and turnover in 2024 compared to the previous year. The Management Board expects the operating profit margin adjusted for special effects to be between 8.0 and 9.0 percent./tih/nas/mis