Lufthansa, wallstreet:online, Rheinmetall - The mood brightens

Rheinmetall - First signs of weakness

While the broad stock market has been on its knees since the Russian invasion, defense stocks have celebrated one stock market party after another. Rheinmetall, the supplier to the German armed forces, rose from around EUR 95 to as much as EUR 225 in mid-April following the German government's announcement of a one-off EUR 100 billion increase in the defense budget. Since then, the share has lost some of its relative strength, the trend indicators have turned, and the first sell signals have been recorded. Currently, the stock is at EUR 188.15. The next prominent support area is the horizontal line in the area of EUR 160.00. In the long term, should the exaggeration come to an end, the gap at EUR 107.05 should be closed.

When it comes to large orders, the Düsseldorf-based company is not only receiving major orders from Germany. According to Dow Jones News, Rheinmetall will supply a NATO customer with protective equipment worth around a quarter of a billion euros. The group has received several major orders, and these come to a gross value of almost EUR 250 million, Rheinmetall announced. Delivery of the components is expected to begin in 2023 and be completed by 2025. Rheinmetall's expertise in protection technologies ranges from individual passive ballistic solutions such as hard ballistic inserts for protective vests to standoff active protection systems. Various analyst houses see further upside potential for the share despite the strong rise. The latest update was announced by the major Swiss bank UBS. Accordingly, analyst Sven Weier continues to see Rheinmetall as a "buy" candidate and reiterated the price target of EUR 251.

wallstreet:online - Smart move

In contrast, the stock chart at wallstreet:online in no way reflects the positive development. Despite repeated record results and a steady increase in assets under management to currently EUR 9.1 million, the share price correction since February of last year amounts to about 50% to EUR 16.50. In the long term, this level should offer an interesting entry opportunity.

The audited consolidated financial statements now once again confirmed the strong full year 2021. Thus, the leading German operator of a neobroker and, at the same time, by far the largest publisher-independent financial portal operator was able to increase revenues by 82% to EUR 51.4 million in the full year 2021. What is impressive here is that after only around two and a half years of Smartbroker's existence, around 63% of growth is already attributable to the transaction business, while about 37% is allocated to the portal business. Adjusted EBITDA before customer acquisition costs amounted to EUR 17.5 million.

Smartbroker is also expected to contribute more and more to the capital's business in the future. For this reason, the importance of the core brand is also to be reflected in the name. Thus, wallstreet:online AG is now planning a change of name, which will be voted on at the Annual General Meeting on June 24, 2022. Specifically, wallstreet:online AG intends to have a resolution passed to change its name to Smartbroker Holding AG. The subsidiary wallstreet:online capital AG plans to change its name to Smartbroker AG. The new name is intended to clearly express the focus on financial services that was adopted some time ago.

wallstreet:online is absolutely on the right track. Price setbacks are possible at any time due to the uncertainties on the capital markets. In the long term, however, the quality of Smartbroker should prevail. The share price could receive a bigger kick after the launch of "Smartbroker 2.0", including its own trading app in H2 2022.

Lufthansa AG - Shortly before take-off

After the short-term sell-off at the beginning of March and prices around EUR 5.25, the Lufthansa share stabilized. After a two-month sideways run, the crane is about to break above the EUR 7.00 mark. If the break of the downward trend formed in February at EUR 7.32 also succeeds, the journey could already go over the EUR 8.00 mark.

In order to expand its sphere of influence to the south, specifically to Italy, Lufthansa is likely to make an offer for ITA, the successor to Alitalia. The sole owner is the Italian state, which then also expected offers by yesterday evening. Italy intends to remain on board with a minority stake and complete the deal by the end of June, Finance Minister Daniele Franco announced a few days ago. The gradual takeover and integration of companies such as Austrian, Brussels Airlines and Swiss could become a model for ITA, and Rome could remain a major air transport hub, like Zurich. "Lufthansa has specialized in a hub model and in national airlines that retain their own identity," praised Rome Airport CEO Marco Troncone in the "Handelsblatt" recently.

While the Vice-Chancellor warned of the dangers of a recession at the recently launched World Economic Forum, the mood of the German economy brightened considerably in May, leading to rising share prices. While Lufthansa and wallstreet:online are promising, Rheinmetall is likely to continue to lose relative strength against the overall market.