FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX Broker) - The Linux specialist Suse can not stop the flight of investors from its shares. On Thursday, the shares slid to a record low of 11.12 euros after the presentation of final business figures for the past quarter. At times, the share price plummeted by more than eleven percent, of which a good nine percent discount still remained.

After the profit warning in May, Suse has now confirmed its outlook for the year. However, for the time being, there is not much news on the orientation, which obviously bothered the Borsians. In addition, the adjusted earnings figures were below expectations.

Investors now wanted clarity on the further strategy after the recent changes in top management, wrote Jefferies analyst Charles Brennan, for example. The former chief executive left the group and at the end of June, the chief financial officer had taken his hat - the search for a successor is ongoing.

Toby Ogg from the US investment bank JPMorgan, meanwhile, also found many positive things: He highlighted some confident statements by the new CEO Dirk-Peter van Leeuwen and the interim CFO on the current situation, and the company has now appointed a risk manager.

In May, Suse had capped its revenue target for the year and also cut its adjusted operating margin (Ebitda margin) forecast. At the time, the company had justified the move by citing postponed contracts as well as a reduction in the average contract length due to the uncertain economic environment. It also said the reorganized sales force had not had the desired effect.

According to Mohammed Moawalla of Goldman Sachs, the final sales figures now published are in line with the pre-disclosure. However, the key figures for adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda), which had not yet been published in May, were still a tad below market expectations, the industry expert added.

In the market, expectations for this Thursday's quarterly report were already low, JPMorgan expert Ogg further noted. However, the mere fact that there were no further cuts to the annual targets after the profit warning in May, he evaluated positively. Among other things, it is now of great importance to the analyst how high the management's confidence is in its medium-term goals.

The crisis at Suse can be easily seen in the share price development. After the Swedish financial investor EQT brought the company to the stock exchange in May 2021, the price had risen to its previous high of 43.60 euros by January of the following year. In the meantime, however, one share only costs a good eleven euros. Since the turn of the year alone, the share price has lost almost a third. This makes Suse one of the biggest losers in the small-cap index SDax./tav/ag/men