FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - Shares in semiconductor equipment manufacturer Aixtron fell by 2.8 percent to 31.68 euros on Tuesday following a downgrade by Japanese bank Nomura. At 31.52 euros, they had shortly before reached a low since the end of November. Although analyst Donnie Teng raised the target price from 34 to 37 euros, he no longer sees enough room for a "buy" vote and downgraded the mechanical engineering company's shares to "neutral".

After five consecutive years of profits with a total share price increase of around 360 percent, Aixtron shares got off to a weak start in 2024 - with a drop of a good 18 percent.

With his price target of EUR 37, Teng is just in the lower half of the targets set by the analysts surveyed by dpa-AFX and the Bloomberg news agency. Olivia Honychurch from investment house Jefferies is particularly optimistic with a target of EUR 55.

At the lower end of the spectrum is Madeleine Jenkins from the Swiss bank UBS with a target of 26.90 euros. She points to somewhat gloomy industry news and assumes that 2024 will be a year of transition for the MDax group.

All eyes are therefore on February 29. Aixtron will then present its financial figures for 2023 and an outlook for 2024./mis/tih