Shares in the company, which have rise 50 percent in the last six months, fell 4.61 percent to 42.41 euros in morning trading here while the CAC 40 index of leading French stocks shed 0.95 percent.

The Dutch broker cut its recommendation on the share to 'reduce' from 'hold' and its analysts said the market had been overestimating the group's ability improve margins with any increases in sales.

"We suspect management will have to raise salary and training costs suggesting that margin upside may be limited," they said in a note to clients.

They added that it remained unproven that orders were increasing as research released late Monday by industry consultancy Forrester Research suggested companies were still cautious about spending money on information technology in 2004.

ABN Amro, which has forecast third-quarter sales of 1.4 billion eurosbillion dollars), said even if orders did increase pricing pressure would remain a problem.

SPACE.WIRE