(Typo in the headline corrected)

FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX Broker) - Their prospects for the future are the departing feature for the Internet stocks Zalando and Hellofresh on Tuesday. While stockbrokers rated the outlook of the online fashion retailer as strong, the cooking box shipper disappointed with an uncertain annual forecast. The two papers subsequently went their separate ways.

Zalando shares climbed at times to a four-week high of 41.47 euros at the top of the Dax. In the late morning, the plus was still 3.6 percent.

At Hellofresh, on the other hand, the downward pressure continued - the shares slumped at times by almost 13 percent as the MDax tail light, thus approaching their three-year low of 19.21 euros, which they reached only last week. However, they then stemmed their losses and still fell by 4.7 percent to 21.67 euros.

Shares in delivery services such as Delivery Hero and the Lieferando parent company Just Eat Takeaway were also temporarily dragged down, but were able to shake off their price losses in the end.

Nothing is more hotly traded among online stocks at the moment than their chance to recover from the current economic dampener, in which high inflation is weighing on consumers' desire to spend. After the extraordinary boost from the Corona pandemic, Zalando also had to cut back sharply last year, with the reluctance of its customers to spend causing a slump in profits for the DAX-listed group. However, the fashion retailer is confident that it will be able to significantly improve its profitability again in the medium term - also thanks to the savings program that has now been initiated, which includes job cuts.

According to one trader, the margin outlook for fiscal year 2025 in particular went down well with investors. Thus, Zalando expressed confidence that the company will "approach" the upper end of the advised margin target of three to six percent by then. UBS analyst Sreedhar Mahamkali rated the earnings outlook statements as probably the most exciting. "In the middle of the forecast range, the new adjusted Ebit forecast is 7 percent above the average analyst expectation," the Swiss bank's expert wrote.

Meanwhile, Volker Bosse of Baader Bank saw the increase in the partner program's share of gross merchandise volume as a "strong sign." According to the industry expert, this segment is likely to be the biggest driver of profitability at Zalando in the future.

With the current price jump, Zalando shares continued the recovery of the past few days, after falling almost a fifth at their peak from the beginning of February to the beginning of March. However, the shares had initially risen in price by almost 140 percent from the eight-year low of 19.18 euros reached at the end of September, before investors then took profits from February onwards. The online fashion retailer thus seems to have received far more advance praise on the stock market with a view to the future than Hellofresh.

In contrast, the price of the cooking box mail order company has been flat for months and has been stuck between 21 and 28 euros since last October. From the record high of 97.50 euros reached at the height of the pandemic in November 2021, the papers have lost almost 80 percent in value.

Meanwhile, Hellofresh management's forecasts for the current year are woolly: The group's management board can imagine both a decline and a significant jump upwards in the development of operating profit, but its target is below the average expectations of analysts.

There are now corresponding risks to the market consensus and to his estimate, Bernstein analyst William Woods wrote. Management continues to prioritize growth through investments, which is a mistake, the expert criticized./tav/ag/mis