(new: share price, experts and more background)

FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX Broker) - A buy recommendation from Citigroup gave a strong boost to Evotec shares on Thursday. Especially the classification as a possible "Tesla of biologics manufacturers" sounds appealing - and creates fantasy. In the morning, Evotec shares climbed above the 23-euro mark to their highest level since the end of August 2022. Most recently, they gained nine percent.

Citigroup analyst Peter Verdult had significantly increased his price target from 21.00 to 31.60 euros. In a best-case scenario, he even considers 48 euros to be possible, more than doubling the price.

The story of the in-house platform Just - Evotec Biologics, with which the Bavarians have been advertising for years, has gained enormously in contour through the latest deal with Novartis subsidiary Sandoz, Verdult praised. He sees "relatively low risks" for the possible $640 million in development milestone payments envisioned by the contract with the Swiss.

Due to a cyber attack, Evotec was unable to submit its audited annual report for 2022 on time a few weeks ago, prompting Deutsche Borse to briefly remove the stock from the MDax - two events that had weighed on the share price.

Since the interim low at the beginning of May, however, the shares have become more popular again with investors, and the price has risen by half in this period. In the meantime, it is also certain that Evotec will return to the mid-cap index on June 19. The annual report is available, so nothing stands in the way of a reinstatement./ajx/ag/jha/

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