(New: Price gains evaporated.)

FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX Broker) - Close to the record level of the shares, an increase in profits announced by Munich Re did not encourage investors to buy on Friday. After the shares had reached the 400-euro mark for the first time on Wednesday and profit-taking had set in the day before, there was little movement at the end of the week. Early price gains evaporated, ultimately falling by 0.1 percent.

Ambitious targets for the new year were no longer able to excite investors accustomed to price gains. The world's largest reinsurer is aiming for a jump in profits to the five billion euro mark in 2024. The profit target is therefore eleven percent higher than the EUR 4.5 billion that CEO Joachim Wenning has announced for 2023. The targets also roughly reflect market expectations: analysts recently forecast just under EUR 4.6 billion for the current year and just under EUR 5 billion for 2024.

Analyst Philip Kett from investment firm Jefferies spoke of "heightened ambition" in an initial reaction published on Friday. Kamran Hossain from the US bank JPMorgan described the target as "not significantly above market expectations" of EUR 4.95 billion. But at least the consensus was just exceeded with the plans.

However, the share price had fallen by almost six percent the previous day after the US Federal Reserve held out the prospect of falling interest rates in the coming year. This also sent the share prices of other primary insurers and reinsurers plummeting.

According to Hossain, the profit target is likely to be interpreted as a conservative benchmark. Munich Re is known for its cautious planning, which will ultimately be exceeded. The first target for 2023 was also only four billion, before it was later raised to 4.5 billion.

Other experts also mentioned the company's conservative approach, including Thorsten Wenzel from DZ Bank. He expects the next possible price driver to be the annual figures due at the end of February, when Munich Re will also report on the treaty renewals as at January 1.

In the year to date, the shares have gained a quarter in value. The solid development was most recently crowned by reaching the 400-euro mark. The previous record was set more than 20 years ago: around the turn of the year 2000/2001, the share price was still just below 400 euros until it reached its low of just over 50 euros at the beginning of 2003./tih/stw/mis/men