{"id":4587,"date":"2026-04-24T15:17:25","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T15:17:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tradertideinsights.com\/?p=4587"},"modified":"2026-04-24T15:17:25","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T15:17:25","slug":"sap-jumps-7-on-earnings-beat-as-cloud-growth-eases-ai-fears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tradertideinsights.com\/?p=4587","title":{"rendered":"SAP jumps 7% on earnings beat as cloud growth eases AI fears"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><\/div>\n<p>Shares in SAP rallied on Friday after the German software giant reported better-than-expected first-quarter profit and reaffirmed its long-term cloud outlook.<\/p>\n<p>The strong result came even as concerns around artificial intelligence continue to weigh on the broader sector.<\/p>\n<p>SAP\u2019s American depositary receipts rose 7.3% to $175.31, recovering from a 6.2% decline in the previous session. <\/p>\n<p>The rebound came as investors responded positively to strong cloud performance and resilient demand trends.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Strong cloud growth drives earnings beat<\/h2>\n<p>SAP reported first-quarter non-IFRS earnings of \u20ac1.72 per share, ahead of analyst expectations of \u20ac1.65, while revenue rose 6% year-on-year to \u20ac9.55 billion, in line with forecasts, according to a FactSet poll.<\/p>\n<p>The company\u2019s cloud division remained the primary growth driver. Cloud revenue climbed 19% to \u20ac5.96 billion, slightly above expectations of \u20ac5.89 billion. <\/p>\n<p>SAP also reported a cloud backlog of \u20ac21.9 billion, up 20% from a year earlier, signaling sustained demand momentum.<\/p>\n<p>SAP reiterated its expectation for 2026 cloud revenue in the range of \u20ac25.8 billion to \u20ac26.2 billion. <\/p>\n<p>It added that total revenue growth in constant currencies is expected to remain at similar levels in 2026 as in 2025, before accelerating in 2027.<\/p>\n<p>The outlook, however, is contingent on macro stability. <\/p>\n<p>SAP noted that its guidance assumes a de-escalation of the Middle East conflict and the successful closing of its planned acquisition of Reltio, a data management software provider, which is expected to be completed in the second or third quarter.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">AI concerns linger but offer unexpected upside<\/h2>\n<p>The earnings report comes against a backdrop of pressure on software stocks, as investors reassess the sector amid concerns that advances in artificial intelligence could disrupt traditional software business models.<\/p>\n<p>SAP\u2019s chief financial officer, Dominik Asam, acknowledged that the company\u2019s share price decline in the first quarter had an unusual side effect.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The SaaSpocalypse debate and the related 28% decline in our share price during the first quarter alone left its traces in that position,&#8221; Asam said during a call with analysts.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;While we hedge the lion&#8217;s share of our cash-settled grants, the sheer magnitude of the move in the unhedged portion, in combination with related social charges that are not hedged, provided this, I have to admit, unintended relief, adding to continued strong general cost discipline.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The broader selloff has been significant, with the iShares Expanded Tech-Software ETF falling as much as 29% this year at its lows, reflecting investor anxiety around AI disruption.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Outlook tied to macro and execution risks<\/h2>\n<p>Despite strong operational performance, SAP\u2019s outlook remains tied to external risks, particularly geopolitical developments. <\/p>\n<p>CFO Dominik Asam highlighted the potential impact of prolonged disruption in global trade routes.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We did also judge whether our outlook of an acceleration in 2027 could be confirmed, and yes we can confirm that \u2014 under the caveat that we don&#8217;t see too long of a continuation of the shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz,&#8221; Asam said in a Barron&#8217;s report.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But I would venture to say that in such a meltdown scenario, SAP is probably the lesser of your concerns in terms of exposure in capital markets,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p>CEO Christian Klein also pointed to both the promise and limitations of artificial intelligence in enterprise applications.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Is this enough when you are touching the payroll, the finance, the financial close, the supply chains of a customer? No, it&#8217;s not enough. It&#8217;s not that the customers don&#8217;t see the value. They see the value. But we have to go the last mile,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/invezz.com\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/sap-jumps-7-on-earnings-beat-as-cloud-growth-eases-ai-fears\/\">SAP jumps 7% on earnings beat as cloud growth eases AI fears<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/invezz.com\">Invezz<\/a><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Shares in SAP rallied on Friday after the German software giant reported better-than-expected first-quarter profit and reaffirmed its long-term cloud outlook.The strong result came even as concerns around artificial intelligence continue to weigh on the broader sector.SAP\u2019s American depositary receipts rose 7.3% to $175.31, recovering from a 6.2% decline in the previous session. The rebound&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4588,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stock"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradertideinsights.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradertideinsights.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradertideinsights.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradertideinsights.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradertideinsights.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tradertideinsights.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradertideinsights.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradertideinsights.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradertideinsights.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradertideinsights.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}