Saga PLC (LSE:SAGA) shares rose 13.3% to 492p after the over-50s holidays and insurance provider raised its full-year profit guidance after strong trading in the year to January.
The FTSE 250 group now expects underlying profit before tax to come in ahead of both last year and its own half-year forecast.
A pre-close trading update, which followed upgrades also made at the time of its interim results, revealed the main driver was an increase in volumes of insuracne policies sold, where the expectation had been for continued decline.
Ocean cruises, the main profit driver for the group, also stood out, with load factors rising to 93% and per diem revenue up 10%.
River cruises performed well, boosted by the launch of Spirit of the Moselle, delivering flat load factors and a 7% rise in per diem to £349.
Looking to 2026/27, forward bookings in cruise and holidays are ahead of the prior year.
Saga expects to continue reducing debt and remains on track to hit its long-term goal of at least £100 million in underlying profit and leverage below 2.0x by 2030.
Analysts at broker Peel Hunt said they estimate that consensus forecasts for the year to January 2026 for adjusted PBT will increase "to the low-£40 million range", up circa 13%, and for the 2027 year "to the low-£50 million range, up over 20%".
"The outperformance is across the board, with the most unexpected improvement in insurance broking where the FY28 target of getting back to FY25 levels of PBT (£15m) seems likely to be met in FY26."