Panasonic rises 7 percent after strong quarterly results

TOKYO (Reuters) - Shares of Panasonic Corp (6752.T) surged 7.1 percent to a three-week high of 585 yen on Wednesday after the electronics maker posted a near seven-fold increase in quarterly operating profit.

The company also set its sights on further business restructuring to revive the company.

Goldman Sachs lifted its 12-month price target on Panasonic to 690 yen from 670 yen and reiterated its "Buy" rating.

"Panasonic said it offset a profit hit of around 25 billion yen from weaker sales with more rationalization and more personnel and other fixed cost reductions, which enabled it to exceed profit guidance," Goldman Sachs said in a note to clients.

"We expect these positives to continue to have an effect from the second quarter, which should help absorb the impact of any further decline in sales. We raise our operating profit estimates by 4-8 percent to reflect internal efforts."

(Reporting by Dominic Lau; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim)