MUNICH (dpa-AFX) - The software specialist Atoss has done better business than expected in the first quarter. Sales and earnings increased strongly. After the record year 2023, the company continues to see signs of growth. Andreas Obereder and his Management Board confirmed the annual targets for the year as a whole. The share price rose by almost two percent to EUR 244 in the morning.

The specialist for personnel management software has been one of the top performers in the small-cap index SDax this year with a share price increase of around 17 percent. Since the interim lows in fall 2022, the share price has more than doubled.

In the first quarter, turnover climbed by 16% to EUR 41.8 million, as the SDax company announced in Munich on Thursday. The cloud business was the main contributor to this. Revenue from the cloud and subscriptions now accounts for around 39% (previous year: 32%) of consolidated revenue.

Earnings before interest and taxes amounted to 14 million euros, an increase of 21 percent. The corresponding profit margin was 34%, two percentage points higher than in the previous year. Turnover and earnings were better than experts had expected. On balance, net profit in the first quarter rose by a good quarter to just under 9.8 million euros.

For the current year, Atoss is still targeting sales of 170 million euros with an operating margin (EBIT) of 30 percent, as expected by experts. According to analyst Henrik Paganetty from investment firm Jefferies, market expectations for 2024 are revenue of EUR 173 million and an operating margin of 31 percent./mne/mis/stk