Tribal tumbles despite cutting first half losses

LONDON (ShareCast) - (ShareCast News) - Shares (Berlin: DI6.BE - news) in Tribal Group (LSE: TRB.L - news) beat a path lower as the company's losses persisted in the first half of 2015, even though they narrowed to £6m from £8.4m last year. At 1412 BST shares in the company, which makes education software, were down 9.09% to 147.04p.

Revenue fell by 8% to £58m from £63.34m. Tribal said this was due to changes in customer buying cycles.

The company, which continues to search for a new chief executive after Keith Evans retired in June, said profitability would be weighed toward the end second half of the year, and said the board's full year expectations were unchanged.

Earnings per share plunged 63% to 1.6p from 4.3p, but the board proposed slightly higher dividend of 0.7p, up from 0.6p.

Canaccord Genuity (Other OTC: CCORF - news) , which retained a 'buy' rating on the stock and a price target of 200p, said the company should benefit from some of the factors which dragged down first half results.

"The company is not seeing a change in customer demand or the competitive environment, but rather a change in the implementation of software projects (more upfront consultation with deferred license sales)," analysts said in a note.

The broker said Tribal's move to review customers' enrolled student numbers should lead to software license revenue for capacity upgrades (Other OTC: UBGXF - news) .