** Shares of Aristocrat Leisure rise as much as 0.8% to A$69.92, hitting highest level since early-Dec 2024
** Analysts at Jefferies say though the gaming operator saw positives from a typical stronger December trading period in its gaming ops, brokerage notes continued outperformance from firm's casino business
** Aristocrat continues to make significant share gains in social casino, growing from 13.8% to 14.7% of the total market in 3Q CY24, indicates Eilers and Krejcik data
** Aristocrat should continue to make share gains in social casino with renewed focus given co's divestment of Plarium business - Citi
** 10 out of 13 analysts rate the stock "buy" or higher and three analysts rate the stock "hold"; its median PT is A$72.25 - LSEG
** Jefferies has a "buy" rating on stock and A$77 PT
** ALL gained 27.5% in 2024
(Reporting by Rishav Chatterjee in Bengaluru) ((Rishav.Chatterjee@thomsonreuters.com;))