(new: share price, analysts and more details)

FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - Investors quickly shrugged off a disappointing outlook from Fresenius on Wednesday. A weak start turned into significant gains: the share price rose by 3.6 percent to 26.97 euros in early trading. This put the shares of the healthcare group at the top of the Dax. In the meantime, the share price reached its highest level since mid-January at 27.20 euros. The market said that the shares had already priced in a lot of pessimism.

Fresenius is targeting organic sales growth of three to six percent for 2024. Adjusted operating profit is expected to increase by four to eight percent excluding exchange rates. Traders initially judged that these targets did not meet expectations. They overshadowed the annual figures, which were decent according to initial reports. According to one trader, profit development in 2023 was slightly better than expected.

In the view of JPMorgan analyst David Adlington, however, the medical group had a decent quarter overall. He qualified that although the forecast for 2024 was weaker than expected, it once again appears conservative. Jefferies expert James Vane-Tempest also emphasized in an initial reaction that the outlook leaves room for improvement.

Under these circumstances, analyst Graham Doyle from UBS emphasized that a lot of caution had already been priced into the shares. The targets actually suggest that the market estimates will fall by four percent. However, Doyle also assumes that this calculated discount is due to a conservative approach. He therefore does not expect any major adjustments to the average estimates.

The shares of Fresenius Medical Care (FMC) were unable to follow the positive trend at Fresenius and fell by 4.5 percent on Wednesday, continuing their significant losses of the previous day. Due to its deconsolidation, the dialysis group is considered to be the reason why Fresenius slipped deep into the red last year due to billions in non-cash extraordinary expenses./tih/ajx/jha/