FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX Broker) - The recent strong setback in the Aixtron share price continued on Thursday. After an initial rating of "Sell" by the Swiss bank UBS, the shares fell by 5.5 percent to 33.52 euros. This brings the loss in the current year to a good 13 percent.

However, the shares had performed strongly towards the end of 2023. The expectation of continued good business had driven the share price up by almost half from its low at the beginning of November to the end of December.

In November, CFO Christian Danninger expressed his confidence with regard to the annual targets in an interview with the "Borsen-Zeitung". He also took a positive view of the future: the company traditionally receives a large number of orders towards the end of the year. "We have a large pipeline of orders in the pipeline - spread across many different regions, end markets and customers."

In addition, there were optimistic analyst comments in December, for example from investment house Oddo BHF. According to analyst Martin Marandon-Carlhian, many investors underestimate the growth potential of the mechanical engineering company for the semiconductor industry. The expert set a price target of 50 euros - almost as high as the 52 euros set by analyst Olivia Honychurch from investment house Jefferies.

At the beginning of December, Honychurch called Aixtron a "top pick in the European semiconductor sector for 2024". Unlike some pessimists, she expects the silicon carbide (SiC) business to grow by 20 percent in 2024 thanks to many orders from new customers. Honychurch also considers the gallium nitride (GaN) sector to be underestimated.

However, the high expectations of some investors have now been dampened this Thursday. Despite an expected strong final quarter of 2023 for Aixtron, the growth of the chip manufacturing equipment manufacturer is unlikely to be sustained in the short term, wrote UBS analysts led by Madeleine Jenkins.

The UBS expert expects Aixtron's revenue for the new year to be roughly at the previous year's level, while the analyst consensus expects growth of 13 percent. The reason for her cautious expectations is the demand for silicon carbide systems (SiC Epitaxy), which is likely to be below market expectations. Competition is also increasing in this market segment./mis/tih/jha/