FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - After raising their annual targets, investors in Heidelberg Materials have taken new confidence. At lunchtime, shares in the building materials company at the top of the Dax gained 4.6 percent to 73.08 euros. It thus also consolidated its position as the second-best performing stock in the German benchmark index in the year to date. Its gain since the beginning of 2023 amounts to a good 37 percent. Only the Adidas share has performed better, rising by around 40 percent since then.

Although the quarterly operating result (Ebitda) was only just above the consensus estimate and its forecast, which had already come down, the raised outlook for earnings before interest and taxes (Ebit) was "a clear positive surprise," commented Jefferies analyst Glynis Johnson. She had therefore already expected before the stock market launch that the paper should receive further upward impetus despite its strong run even since the fall of 2022. If one looks at the past ten months, the plus of the share amounts to approximately 85 per cent.

The market was a bit nervous ahead of the numbers, wrote JPMorgan analyst Elodie Rall. The higher forecast, however, should now inspire confidence. For the current year, the management board of the DAX-listed group now expects adjusted EBIT of between 2.7 and 2.9 billion euros, compared with the 2.50 to 2.65 billion euros previously targeted. When it presented the figures in May, it had already raised the lower end of the range.

According to Rall, the average analyst estimate for EBIT is 2.81 billion euros. "Since we assume that the company has still remained conservative in its guidance, we see scope for a consensus increase of at least about three percent to reach the upper end of the forecast."/ck/mne/jha/