(new: closing price)

FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - The leasing specialist Grenke has ultimately benefited somewhat from figures on new business on Wednesday - but in the course of trading the nerves of its shareholders properly strained. Because the profitability of the company disappointed.

With a jump to 23 euros, Grenke shares had initially continued their recent rapid recovery and were only just below their interim high from November. However, investors lost heart here, and after a price gain of a good 17 percent since the turn of the year, some opted for profit-taking. The price gain quickly dwindled and the shares slid by around 8 percent.

In the end, however, Grenke shares recovered and managed to cross the finish line up 0.7 percent at 21.56 euros. However, they lagged behind the small cap index SDax, which rose by 1.6 percent.

Analysts, however, took a rather positive view of the figures. Both Marius Fuhrberg from Warburg Research and the experts from Pareto Securities continued to recommend Grenke shares. Their price targets of 36 and 35 euros respectively still give the share considerable room for improvement. Last year, it had lost more than a third of its value and even cost more than 100 euros before the outbreak of the Corona pandemic in February 2020.

With a new business volume of 2.3 billion euros, Grenke 2022 reached the upper end of the target range raised in October. The Pareto experts highlighted the strong development in the final quarter. In addition, Grenke exceeded its expectation for the year, which had been at the lower end of the target range at EUR 2.1 billion. The return of growth is very good news for Grenke, he said. Warburg analyst Fuhrberg added that this had been more pronounced than he had expected and that the fourth quarter had been the strongest in the course of the year.

A stock exchange trader also attested to the company's accelerated growth. However, he noted that profitability had deteriorated. Grenke's contribution margin as a measure of operating profit had not increased quite as much as the volume of new business in 2022, which is why the corresponding margin had declined. Responsible for this was not only the company's renewed focus on larger contracts, which are not as profitable, but also rising interest rates. Grenke can only pass these on to its own customers with a time lag.

With a stabilization of interest rates, however, margins should also pick up again, Fuhrberg said optimistically for the future. The outlook for 2023, which is expected as part of the full financial figures for the past year announced in March, should prove a continuation of the growth trend, according to his assessment. The Pareto analysts emphasized the attractive valuation of the securities based on their earnings estimates for the new year. They trust Grenke to achieve earnings per share growth of 27 percent per annum by 2027./gl/bek/mis/la/ngu