The manager is pushing the switch to cloud computing.
(Photo: Bloomberg)
A year ago, SAP shocked shareholders with a sharp cut in its forecast, but since then the software manufacturer has consistently exceeded its targets: On Tuesday, after a solid third quarter, it announced better figures for the entire fiscal year – for the third time this year.
The most important preliminary key figures at a glance:
• Of the sales rose by five percent to 6.84 billion euros. While the license business shrank as expected, SAP recorded an increase of 20 percent to 2.39 billion euros with its cloud offerings.
• The sale of the core product S / 4 Hana Cloud is now properly starting: The incoming orders, measured on Current cloud backlog, rose by 60 percent to 1.28 billion euros. Overall, the business volume with cloud offerings increased by 24 percent to 8.17 billion euros for the next twelve months.
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• Given the robust development, SAP is raising the forecast for the revenue from the cloud business around 100 million euros, the range is now between 9.4 and 9.6 billion euros. The group is also forecasting a slight improvement in the operating result. That is not unexpected, the annual targets were considered conservative on the stock exchange.
Management sees these figures as confirmation of the strategy. “Customers rely on SAP for their company transformation in the cloud. We are experiencing record demand for our applications and our platform, ”said CEO Christian Klein in a press release.
The 41-year-old manager lowered the outlook a year ago due to the corona pandemic and also announced a faster introduction of cloud services – at the expense of the margin. The announcement resulted in a sell-off of the stock.
Although SAP regularly exceeds its own forecasts this year, the share underperforms. While the software manufacturer has recorded an increase of around nine percent since the beginning of the year, it is ten percent for the leading index Dax. The MSCI World Software index even increased by 22 percent.
Most analysts see potential in the SAP share, which went out of trading on Tuesday at just under 117 euros. A majority recommend buying the paper; the average target price is around 132 euros.
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