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Original-Research: q.beyond AG - from NuWays AG
22.10.2026 / 09:00 CET/CEST
Dissemination of a Research, transmitted by EQS News - a service of EQS
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The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this research. The
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Classification of NuWays AG to q.beyond AG
Company Name: q.beyond AG
ISIN: DE000A41YDG0
Reason for the research: Update
Recommendation: BUY
Target price: EUR 4.90
Target price on sight of: 12 months
Last rating change:
Analyst: Philipp Sennewald
FY26 written off, FY27 on trial; Chg.
Yesterday, QBY released Q3 prelims and cut its guidance for the second time
this year. While Q3p sales of EUR 43.2m where in line with eNuW of EUR 43.1m,
EBITDA of EUR -4.8m (eNuW: EUR -0.2m) significantly missed expectations. As part
of the EUR 4.3m of provisions for the lay-offs under the accelerated AI
transformation were already included in our forecast (EUR 2.5m, rest was
expected for Q4), the shortfall is largely operational. Adjusted for the
one-offs, EBTIDA stood at EUR -0.5m, down EUR 3m qoq on largely unchanged sales.
Management now targets FY sales of EUR 174-178m (old: EUR 176-180m) and EBITDA
of EUR -4 to -2m (old: EUR 3-7m). Importantly, the restructuring is not the
reason for the cut, as stated in the H1 report, the old range already
included EUR 5-6m one-off transformation costs, of which EUR 5.2m are now booked
(EUR 0.9m in Q2). Ex one-offs, guidance thus drops to EUR 2-4m from EUR 9-13m,
i.e. some EUR 8m of operational deterioration at mid-point within then weeks.
The main issues are higher one-off licenses costs, additional spend on
internal digitalisation incl. AI tools and customer deferred projects in the
sales pipeline, especially MS. With 9m EBITDA of EUR -1.7m, Q4 is now implied
to come in at EUR -2.3 to -0.3m (eNuW: EUR -0.7m, thereof EUR 0.8m one-off), hence
no meaningful improvement despite GITG and improved order intake.
Speaking of which, OI in Q3 jumped to EUR 49.7m, almost matching the entire H1
(EUR 51.9m) and implying a b-t-b of 1.15x. Together with the c. EUR 7m annual
cost savings from FY27 (70-80 FTE reduction in Germany, service-desk
relocation to Cluj & process automation), this underpins managements outlook
for markedly increasing top- and bottom-line next year.
In our view, the second cut within ten weeks definitely hurts credibility,
especially the magnitude of it. That said, we continue to see the potential
of the business, which should be able to yield c. 10% EBITDA margins at
improved utilization both in MS and Consulting. However, management needs to
demonstrate that the initiatives taken generate visible improvements, with
the first reality check being Q1'27.
Until then, we do not see any positive catalysts. In contrary, we regard the
FY28 guidance of EUR 250m sales (eNuW: EUR 204m) and 10% EBITDA margin (eNuW:
6.5%) as at risk. That said, we confirm our BUY rating with a slightly lower
PT of EUR 4.90 (old: EUR 5.10,as we only cut FY26e and leave our estimates from
FY27e onwards unchanged, supported by the order intake and the savings
programme, so the DCF impact remains marginal. With net cash of EUR 19.3m
(eNuW for FY26e) and the hidden reserve of the Hamburg data centre covering
c. 2/3 of the market cap (eNuW), downside protection should be clearly
given.
You can download the research here:
https://nwr.eqs-cockpit.com/fncls2.ssx?fn=redirect&u=cfa9602ab759aad4644bb6193a965deb
For additional information visit our website:
https://www.nuways-ag.com/research
Contact for questions:
NuWays AG - Equity Research
Web: www.nuways-ag.com
Email: research@nuways-ag.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nuwaysag
Adresse: Mittelweg 16-17, 20148 Hamburg, Germany
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Diese Meldung ist keine Anlageberatung oder Aufforderung zum Abschluss
bestimmter Börsengeschäfte.
Offenlegung möglicher Interessenkonflikte nach § 85 WpHG beim oben
analysierten Unternehmen befindet sich in der vollständigen Analyse.
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2420042 22.10.2026 CET/CEST
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Quelle: dpa-AFX
