Topic: While we already published our first piece on ATOSS, reviewing the company's H1 report (click here), this report aims to provide a broader introduction into the investment case.
ATOSS stands out as a pure-play on workforce management software (WFM), a segment increasingly critical amid talent scarcity, rising labor costs, complex regulation, and growing union influence. Despite these pressures, many firms in the DACH region, ATOSS' core market, still operate with outdated, mostly Excel-based or manual systems - thus leaving significant efficiency potential untapped.
ATOSS addresses this need with a comprehensive, cloud-native WFM platform spanning time & attendance, shift planning, and algorithm-driven scheduling, all fully compliant with local labor regulations. This combination of functionality and regulatory expertise sets ATOSS apart: smaller domestic rivals struggle to match its breadth, while international WFM vendors often lack the depth of local compliance knowledge. The result is a loyal blue-chip customer base and consistently high gross retention rates of >96%.
In recent years, the business model of ATOSS has successfully transitioned from perpetual licenses to recurring subscriptions. In H1'25, cloud and subscription revenues increased 30% yoy to € 44.1m, representing 48% of total sales (+8pp yoy). Total recurring revenues (cloud + mainentance) reached € 64.0m, or 70% of group sales. With a current cloud backlog of 96.9m and ARR of € 130.1m (+19% yoy), earnings visibility remains exceptionally strong.
Beyond its DACH stronghold, ATOSS is rolling out into France, Benelux, and other non-DACH countries - markets offering the company an estimated € 400m ARR potential (eNuW). In parallel, upselling within the existing customer base remains a key growth lever, with adoption often expanding from partial use to 80-100% of available modules across the customer lifecycle. In sum, revenues are seen to grow at a 13% CAGR into FY27e.
Strong current trading. After FY24 marked another record year with sales up 13% to € 171m and EBIT up 22% to € 63.4m (37% margin), momentum carried into H1'25 as sales increased 10% yoy to € 92.1m and EBIT margin arrived at 34%. Mind you, the FY24 margin was temporarily elevated by unspent investment funds during the sales restructuring. For FY25, management guides c. € 190m sales and an EBIT margin of at least 31%, which we regards as absolutely achievable. In the longer term, the highly scalable and capital-light setup should enable EBIT margins to approach 40% as well as ROICs of >70% (eNuW).
Against this backdrop, we confirm our BUY rating with an unchanged € 152 PT based on DCF.
continued
ISIN: DE0005104400
