FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - Bad news from the end of the week continued to affect Siltronic on Monday. Before the weekend, the shares were able to almost completely make up for the price slide triggered by a lowering of the annual forecast, but now concerns about capitalization weighed on the stock following a pessimistic analyst commentary. The share price recently fell by 2.2 percent. Hauck Aufhäuser Investment Banking gave up its buy recommendation.

Hauck analyst Tim Wunderlich downgraded Siltronic from "buy" to "hold" after cutting the price target to 74 euros and thus to the current price level. As customers are reducing their inventories more slowly than hoped, the semiconductor wafer manufacturer has been expecting the market recovery to be delayed further since Friday. Siltronic now expects a decline in sales and margins for 2024. The company had previously forecast figures in the order of magnitude of the previous year.

Although the shares were almost able to make up for the daily loss of up to 11 percent triggered by the profit warning on Friday, there was still a lack of momentum for a real recovery attempt on Monday. With a drop of a good 16 percent, Siltronic shares remain one of the weakest stocks in the MDax this year. They are trading at their lowest level since September. On Friday, they had even reached a low since July.

Analyst Tim Wunderlich justified the downgrade with the price pressure prevailing at the wafer manufacturer. While the global semiconductor market has returned to growth, the expert described the sluggish demand as a surprise. He also added that the balance sheet was rather weak. He considered the debt to be too high and spoke of the need for refinancing at higher interest rates.

With a target price of EUR 74, Wunderlich now appears at the very end of the analysts' list. However, not all experts have yet reacted to the latest news. Meanwhile, the analysts at Oddo BHF remain positive even after the profit warning. Although they have lowered the target price slightly to 100 euros, they still see plenty of upside potential./tih/mis/jha/