Allianz's Buyback Accelerates Just Below Record as Berenberg Puts 60% Upside on the Table
Published on 07/18/2026 at 04:52 | Redaktion boerse-global.de
Munich's insurance giant is spending heavily to reduce its own share count even as the stock trades barely a stone's throw from an all-time high. Allianz closed at €421.00 on July 14, up 0.50% on the day and just 1.06% below its 52-week peak of €425.50 reached earlier this month. The buyback machine, meanwhile, is shifting into higher gear.
The current €2.5 billion repurchase programme, which runs through the end of December 2026, is already 60% complete. During the week of June 29 to July 3, Allianz bought back 294,533 of its own shares — the third consecutive week of rising volumes. More telling is the price trajectory: the average weekly purchase price has climbed from €373.02 in early June to €414.07 in the latest reporting period, inching within 2.2% of the record. At the current pace, the programme could exhaust its firepower well before the year-end deadline.
That aggressive buying comes as the equity itself enjoys a strong tailwind. The stock has advanced 7.66% year-to-date and 21.54% over the past twelve months. The relative strength index sits at 67.2, still below the overbought threshold, while the shares trade above all key moving averages — technical signals that reinforce the bullish narrative.
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying Allianz?
Berenberg analyst Michael Huttner adds a fundamental layer to that momentum. On July 14 he reaffirmed his buy rating and a €684 price target, implying roughly 60% upside from current levels. The catalyst, in his view, is Germany's planned pension reform, which could funnel fresh capital into equities through the life insurance operations of Allianz and its Italian rival Generali. Not everyone shares his certainty: a separate report from DER AKTIONÄR flagged the risk that a key element of the reform — a state-subsidised deposit without guarantee obligations — may face delays, pushing the projected benefits further into the future. The stock thus sits between a long-term structural tailwind and near-term political uncertainty.
Away from the pension debate, Allianz Capital Partners is quietly expanding its real-asset footprint. The investment arm filed for clearance with the Federal Cartel Office on July 13 to acquire control of DEG Solarpark 42 GmbH & Co. KG, a Hamburg-based entity whose product market is listed as a transformer station. The move, while routine from a regulatory perspective, underscores the group's steady build-out of renewable energy and grid infrastructure — a field that increasingly matters for institutional investors like Allianz.
Investors now have the half-year results due in August as the next major checkpoint. The first quarter delivered a record operating profit, driven by property-casualty and asset management, and management is standing by its full-year target of roughly €17.4 billion in operating earnings, plus or minus €1 billion. Whether the buyback continues its upward creep in price, and whether the broader market headwinds — the DAX came under pressure on the same day from tech weakness and rising oil prices tied to Iran tensions — will test that trajectory, remains to be seen. For now, Allianz is doing what few companies dare: buying its own stock at prices that keep brushing against history.
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