FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - After a setback over the past two days, the Zalando share continued its recovery on Friday. This was triggered by a positive analyst study by the private bank Berenberg, which now recommends the online fashion retailer's shares as a buy. The figures for the first quarter presented last Tuesday had already prompted several other analyst firms to raise their price targets for the share, including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and UBS.

In late morning trading, Zalando shares recently gained three percent to 25.15 euros, putting them at the top of the friendly leading index Dax. However, Zalando shares were unable to break back above the important 21-day moving average, which was breached two days ago. This line, which signals the short-term trend, currently stands at around 25.70 euros and is like a lid on the share price. In the year to date, however, the share has performed very well with an increase of 17 percent, putting it in eleventh place among the 40 DAX companies.

Analyst Matthew Abraham from Berenberg has now upgraded Zalando from "Hold" to "Buy". With this recommendation, the private bank sees a sustainable upside potential of more than 15 percent for the share over the next twelve months.

Abraham pointed to initial signs of a successful implementation of Zalando's newly outlined strategy as well as improved dynamics in the end markets. "Given the expansion of the B2B customer base and the strong growth in the newly targeted segments of Zalando's B2C focus, the new strategies are promising," he wrote. The effective implementation of the new strategy has gone hand in hand with continued cost discipline, which has resulted in a pleasing increase in margins.

With the new price target, which Abraham raised from 25.20 to 29.70 euros, he also took into account the recently presented first quarter results. He also considers the valuation of the share to be "undemanding".

Following the presentation of the first quarter figures last Tuesday, several other analysts had already made positive comments about the fashion group, whose business had been somewhat more profitable than expected thanks to its cost-cutting measures. This had overshadowed the poor sales performance in view of the weak economy in Germany and poor consumer sentiment./ck/la/stk