Future shares fell 10% to 285p after the specialist media publisher paused its share buyback to focus on reducing debt.
Trading is in line with expectations.
About £8 million of the buyback programme remains unspent. Panmure Liberum said pausing the programme looked like the right call, even if the short-term optics were not the best.
The broker pointed to net debt of 1.7 times earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), a common measure of how stretched a company's borrowings are.
Cash conversion is very strong, but Panmure Liberum said the debt level was higher than it would like given current revenue trends.
Debt and equity each make up roughly half of Future's value, which the broker described as a recipe for share price volatility.
Panmure Liberum said the decision appeared designed to weaken the bear case against the stock.
All else equal, that should support the valuation, according to the broker.
Future trades on 2.8 times earnings and 3.3 times enterprise value to operating profit, underlining how cheaply publishing companies are currently valued.
Panmure Liberum said that if the business is not facing oblivion, and it does not believe it is, there should be value in the shares.
The broker kept its Buy rating and 500p target price, about 75% above the current share price.
Investors, for now, seem more worried about the oblivion than the value.
