The medical technology group from Jena has laid out ambitious cost-cutting targets, yet the market response has been anything but enthusiastic. Carl Zeiss Meditec’s shares were changing hands at around €25.50 on Tuesday, erasing 10.6% over the past week and extending the year-to-date slide to 35.4%. While the stock has briefly steadied at its 50-day moving average, it still trades roughly 29% below the 200-day line — a gap that screams “technical downtrend” rather than “turnaround”.
The pressure stems directly from the company’s first-half performance. Revenue fell 5.7% to €991 million, weighed down by negative currency effects and persistently weak demand for intraocular lenses (IOLs) in China. The damage to profitability was even starker: adjusted EBITA dropped to €60.5 million, squeezing the margin to 6.1% from a double-digit level a year earlier. China, once the main growth engine for the ophthalmology business, has become the biggest headwind.
Analysts have taken note, and their caution is reflected in recent target revisions. Bernstein lowered its price objective from €28.50 to €26.10 while maintaining a “Market-Perform” rating. Deutsche Bank sticks with “Hold” and a €30 target, while Goldman Sachs sits at €28.00 with a “Neutral” stance. Technical indicators add to the murky picture: the relative strength index sits at 73.2, flashing short-term overbought conditions, yet the stock remains almost 29% below its 200-day average — inconsistent with a genuine recovery.
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying Carl Zeiss Meditec?
Management’s answer is the “Profit Up” programme, a multi-year restructuring that aims to deliver annual earnings improvements of more than €200 million by the 2028/29 fiscal year. The plan involves cutting up to 1,000 jobs worldwide over three years, pruning underperforming product lines, streamlining the supply chain, and shifting more research and development to lower-cost regions. But the restructuring comes at a price: one-off charges and investments of up to €150 million before any savings materialise. That timing gap — spend first, benefit later — leaves the equity exposed in the near term.
For the current financial year, Carl Zeiss Meditec expects revenue between €2.15 billion and €2.20 billion, with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 8% to 10%. Achieving even the lower end of that range will require two things to fall into place in the second half: the first demonstrable cost effects from Profit Up and a stabilisation of IOL demand in China. A stronger summer season in Asia-Pacific could provide a tailwind, but the Americas remain a concern due to a more cautious capital spending environment.
The stock’s recent sideways move around the 50-day average looks less like a bottom and more like a pause before the next leg of the trend is determined. If neither China nor Profit Up delivers visible relief in the coming months, the shares will remain vulnerable — regardless of how impressive the savings targets look on paper.
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