FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - A better final quarter than originally expected by the company boosted the shares of Rational on Thursday. They climbed to 655 euros, their highest level since early August 2022, and closed at 636 euros, almost five percent above their previous day's close. In the MDax, they were among the best performers with this gain.

The preliminary full-year figures exceeded management's forecast for sales and profits, the company announced in a surprise move on Thursday afternoon.

Rational's key figures for the fourth quarter exceeded market expectations, analyst Sebastian Kuenne of Canadian bank RBC wrote in a recent note. The company has developed strongly, although this is not entirely unexpected for him. His estimate for the operating result (Ebit) in the final quarter had already been 20 percent above market expectations and thus at about the same level as the figure now reported. More important, however, is the order intake, and here Kuenne expects a weaker development in the fourth quarter./ajx/jha/