MUNICH (dpa-AFX) - Software specialist Atoss continued to grow in the third quarter. Sales and profits increased compared to the previous year, as the company announced in Munich on Monday. For this reason, the group, which specializes in work software, was confident of exceeding its annual forecast, which was only raised in July. The shares of the company, which is listed in the small cap segment SDax, therefore rose significantly in the morning.

Atoss now expects sales of €145 million in 2023, after management had previously forecast at least €142 million. The margin before interest and taxes (Ebit) is also expected to be higher than the forecast of around 30 percent. After nine months, sales are up 35 percent to €110.3 million and the EBIT margin is 33 percent.

In the morning, Atoss shares rose by a good five percent to 212.50 euros, making it the second-strongest gainer on the SDax. This means that the share price is still some way from its record high of 234 euros in July. However, with a gain of more than 50 percent this year, the stock is one of the strongest performers in the SDax. Jefferies analyst Henrik Paganetty was pleased with the increase in the forecast. He also said the company had performed well in the quarter.

In the third quarter, sales rose from 28.3 million a year earlier to a good 37 million euros. Among other things, the company benefited from increased revenues in the cloud business. Earnings before interest and taxes increased from just under 7.8 million to 12.5 million euros. Atoss earned around 8.6 million euros net. A year earlier, the figure had been just under 5.5 million euros.

The company was also satisfied with the order situation. This had developed "pleasingly overall" in the first nine months. Atoss cited the order intake for new license subscriptions and one-off licenses from new and existing customers as the reason for this, which remained at the high level of the previous year despite the deterioration in the general economic data./nas/stw/stk