FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - The Rheinmetall share broke through the 300 euro mark for the first time on Tuesday afternoon. The extremely good run thus continues at the beginning of the new year. Support came from positive studies by Bank of America (BofA) and JPMorgan.

As the top stock on the DAX, the shares of the armaments company and automotive supplier recently rose by 4.5 percent to EUR 300. Shortly before, it had even jumped to 300.10 euros. Last year, the share price had risen by a total of just over 54%, making Rheinmetall the strongest share in the DAX - and this after the share price had already doubled in 2022.

Analyst David Perry from JPMorgan has now reiterated his "Overweight" rating with a price target of 420 euros and referred to the three export orders worth 900 million euros reported in December. They help to underpin the Group's very optimistic sales and earnings targets (Ebita) for 2026.

BofA analyst Benjamin Heelan, who rates the share as a "buy" with a price target of EUR 410, sees numerous opportunities for a higher valuation for the entire European defense and aerospace industry. The industry is in its strongest growth cycle in a decade.

However, Rheinmetall occupies a special position due to its two different divisions. The Group is not comparable with pure aerospace and defense companies or pure automotive companies. The defence sector, however, is very strong and is not expected to experience a normalization of growth until 2026. However, the automotive sector is likely to continue to underperform in the future, Heelan wrote.

Armaments have been in demand since Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine. Added to this is the war in Gaza. Western countries are currently investing more money in defense. During the Capital Markets Day in November, Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger therefore also issued very optimistic growth targets for the coming years, which were significantly higher than analysts' estimates./ck/ajx/he