Free Issue No. 05 of 27.02.2020
And suddenly it's only going up! Shares of LEONTEQ, the leading provider of structured investment products, are up nearly +50% since the beginning of the year.As reported at the end of January, the chart had already indicated it; LEONTEQ is on the verge of a comeback and could rise significantly further as it develops. The positive conclusions from the financial results released on February 13 further fueled the flight to the top.Actually, investors more or less expected these business figures; the profit of the derivatives specialist fell as expected.The bottom line was a profit of CHF 62.7 mn,down 31% from CHF 91.5 million a year earlier. We had expected earnings per share of CHF 3.60, which turned out to be CHF 3.30. For this year, we see earnings per share of CHF 4.40, which management says should be feasible. LEONTEQ continues to focus on scaling its business and finding new partners. To this end, the development of the digital marketplace LynQ and the platform for hedging transactions SHIP (Smart Hedging and Issuance Platform) is being driven forward. Six investment banks are already connected to SHIP, and up to eight could be partners one day!The outlook for the current financial year has been adjusted slightly downwards, including an increase in operating income from CHF 300 million to a new range of CHF 270 million to CHF 300 million.
The published business figures did not actually point to such an increase in the share price. The decisive factor was probably the surprising announcement of a dividend per share of CHF 0.50! This is supposed to be the beginning of a conservative dividend policy. Based on this announcement, we assume that earnings and the dividend will continue to rise.
We maintain our buy recommendation! The target price is CHF 75!
