(New: Analysts' comments, share price updated)

FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX Broker) - Increased profitability targets convinced investors on the Jenoptik stock exchange on Friday. The shares gained 4.20 percent to 25.80 euros later in the morning, making them the top stock in the MDax for mid-caps. They also continued to rise above the 90-day moving average. This signals the share's medium-term trend and is currently slightly below 24.60 euros.

Jenoptik has made better progress than expected in transforming the technology group into a pure photonics group. As a result, the operating margin is now expected to be between 21 and 22 percent by 2025, compared to the previous target of around 20 percent. The sales target remained unchanged at around 1.2 billion euros. "Positive", stated one trader, "because the outlook is slightly better than the current Bloomberg consensus on the earnings side". This refers to the average analyst estimate of the operating margin published by the Bloomberg news agency.

The technology group gave a brief overview of its strategy before the start of the Capital Markets Day. The focus is on organic growth and thus on achieving the previous sales target of 1.2 billion euros in 2025, wrote analyst Adrian Pehl from the investment bank Stifel Europe. The consensus estimate is already there, but possibly still assumes contributions from mergers and acquisitions.

Jefferies analyst Henrik Paganetty positively emphasized the strong growth in Jenoptik's core photonics business. This was the main reason for the increased margin targets, he wrote. The transformation from an industrial to a photonics group is now largely complete./ck/tav/mis

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