FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - Evotec shares halted their steep decline for the time being on Thursday. They benefited from an upgrade by the Canadian bank RBC. In early trading, the shares of the drug researcher recently gained 2.2 percent to 14.90 euros.

However, this does not change the fact that they are still by far the biggest loser in the MDax in the still young stock market year 2024 with a current discount of around 30 percent. The mid-cap index has lost almost seven percent so far in 2024. The previous day, Evotec had slipped below the important support level of EUR 15, marking its lowest level since May 2018.

RBC analyst Charles Weston sees risks for the drug researcher's targets up to 2025 and the 2024 targets also made him a little nervous; however, the current valuation takes these risks into account to an exaggerated extent and the company's debt-free balance sheet allows for flexibility, he wrote in a recent study. In it, he upgraded the shares to "outperform".

The shares have been under enormous pressure since the beginning of the year. This was initially due to the surprising announcement of the resignation of long-time CEO Werner Lanthaler. This alone caused the share price to fall by more than 20 percent at the beginning of January.

Late-reported share transactions by Lanthaler - as initially discussed in "Manager Magazin" - raised questions a few days later and put additional pressure on the share price. Although Evotec appears to have complied with regulatory requirements with their publication, the behavior of the CEO is likely to put Evotec in a bad light with investors, analyst Weston wrote a few days ago./ajx/tav/tih