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Transcripts and related coverage stored for SAP. Related articles may discuss other companies and are not verified issuer releases.

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Related articleQuarter not tagged2026-10-22

What SAP (SAP) Said on Its Q3 Earnings Call

MarketBeat
- Interested in SAP SE? Here are five stocks we like better. - SAP delivered a strong Q3 2026: Cloud revenue rose 25% to €6.7 billion, total revenue increased 12% to a record €10.3 billion, and non-IFRS operating profit grew 18% to more than €3 billion. Current cloud backlog reached €24.1 billion, up 26% year over year at constant currencies. - Cloud ERP and AI remained key growth drivers. Cloud ERP revenue increased 28%, while customers continued adopting SAP's RISE and GROW offerings, Business Data Cloud and Joule AI tools to support enterprise transformations and AI initiatives. - SAP retained its 2026 outlook but flagged fourth-quarter execution risks. The company expects to finish near the upper end of its cloud revenue guidance, while macroeconomic uncertainty, a tougher comparison base and the importance of Q4 bookings could challenge its planned 2027 growth acceleration. - The Pre-IPO Playbook: How to Cash in on Anthropic Before the Bell SAP (NYSE:SAP) reported third-quarter 2026 results marked by double-digit cloud revenue and operating-profit growth, as the enterprise software company said demand for artificial intelligence capabilities, cloud migrations and its Business Data Cloud continued to support bookings. Chief Executive Officer Christian Klein called the period an "outstanding quarter," saying current cloud backlog reached €24.1 billion, up 26% year over year at constant currencies. Cloud revenue rose 25% to €6.7 billion, while total revenue increased 12% to €10.3 billion, surpassing €10 billion in quarterly revenue for the first time in SAP's history. → Aurora Rejects Curaleaf's Higher Bid, But the Takeover Fight Isn't Over - SAP Bets $1B on AI Acquisitions to Lock In Enterprise Data Non-IFRS operating profit rose 18% to more than €3 billion. SAP said nine of its 50 largest deals during the quarter included AI and Business Data Cloud offerings. Chief Financial Officer Dominik Asam said cloud ERP suite revenue grew 28% and represented 89% of total cloud revenue. Software licenses revenue declined 9%, while services revenue fell 5% at constant currencies. Despite the services decline, Asam said total revenue growth was "a remarkable result" given the changing mix of the business. → Could Quantinuum's Breakthrough Make Its Sell-Off a Bargain? - Giants Costco, Sanofi, and SAP Raise Dividends by Over 10% SAP reported particularly strong cloud r…Read full document

- Interested in SAP SE? Here are five stocks we like better. - SAP delivered a strong Q3 2026: Cloud revenue rose 25% to €6.7 billion, total revenue increased 12% to a record €10.3 billion, and non-IFRS operating profit grew 18% to more than €3 billion. Current cloud backlog reached €24.1 billion, up 26% year over year at constant currencies. - Cloud ERP and AI remained key growth drivers. Cloud ERP revenue increased 28%, while customers continued adopting SAP's RISE and GROW offerings, Business Data Cloud and Joule AI tools to support enterprise transformations and AI initiatives. - SAP retained its 2026 outlook but flagged fourth-quarter execution risks. The company expects to finish near the upper end of its cloud revenue guidance, while macroeconomic uncertainty, a tougher comparison base and the importance of Q4 bookings could challenge its planned 2027 growth acceleration. - The Pre-IPO Playbook: How to Cash in on Anthropic Before the Bell SAP (NYSE:SAP) reported third-quarter 2026 results marked by double-digit cloud revenue and operating-profit growth, as the enterprise software company said demand for artificial intelligence capabilities, cloud migrations and its Business Data Cloud continued to support bookings. Chief Executive Officer Christian Klein called the period an "outstanding quarter," saying current cloud backlog reached €24.1 billion, up 26% year over year at constant currencies. Cloud revenue rose 25% to €6.7 billion, while total revenue increased 12% to €10.3 billion, surpassing €10 billion in quarterly revenue for the first time in SAP's history. → Aurora Rejects Curaleaf's Higher Bid, But the Takeover Fight Isn't Over - SAP Bets $1B on AI Acquisitions to Lock In Enterprise Data Non-IFRS operating profit rose 18% to more than €3 billion. SAP said nine of its 50 largest deals during the quarter included AI and Business Data Cloud offerings. Chief Financial Officer Dominik Asam said cloud ERP suite revenue grew 28% and represented 89% of total cloud revenue. Software licenses revenue declined 9%, while services revenue fell 5% at constant currencies. Despite the services decline, Asam said total revenue growth was "a remarkable result" given the changing mix of the business. → Could Quantinuum's Breakthrough Make Its Sell-Off a Bargain? - Giants Costco, Sanofi, and SAP Raise Dividends by Over 10% SAP reported particularly strong cloud revenue performance in Asia-Pacific Japan and Europe, the Middle East and Africa, with solid performance in the Americas. Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, India, South Korea and Spain delivered outstanding performance, according to Asam, while Switzerland, the U.K. and the U.S. were particularly strong. Klein said AI has become a major factor in customers' decisions to migrate to SAP's RISE and GROW cloud offerings. He said customers are using AI tools to accelerate transformations and migrations, while Business Data Cloud is being adopted as a data foundation for enterprise AI. → IonQ's Bold Expansion Could Leave Shareholders Paying the Price The company cited customer wins and deployments across industries, including BBVA, FirstBank of Canada, Infineon, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, NTN Corporation, AstraZeneca, Decathlon, Salling Group and Hengli. Klein also said companies including Mondelez, Panasonic, Roche and Infosys went live with RISE during the quarter. SAP emphasized its Joule Work offering, which Klein described as a workbench for the "autonomous enterprise." The platform allows users to interact with SAP systems through natural-language conversations, view data through Joule Spaces and develop or tailor AI agents through Joule Studio. Klein said SAP provides access to more than 70 frontier and open-weight AI models and does not intend to commit customers to a single preferred model. He said the company evaluates models based on performance, price and outcomes for individual AI-agent use cases. According to Klein, SAP's Business Data Cloud and knowledge graph map more than 7 million fields and 500,000 tables, along with 400 data products and process knowledge. He said the company's acquisitions of Reltio and LeanIX expand the context layer beyond SAP data, while SAP's intended acquisition of TechWolf would extend its capabilities into skills and workforce intelligence. Klein also stressed SAP's governance approach, stating that customer data and process intellectual property are not uploaded to large language models for training, model improvement or other purposes. SAP's AI Agent Hub in LeanIX is intended to provide an inventory for managing SAP and non-SAP agents, he said. SAP's IFRS cloud gross margin was 73.9%, while non-IFRS cloud gross margin was 74.3%, down 0.7 percentage points from a year earlier. IFRS operating profit increased 18% to €2.9 billion. Free cash flow totaled €1.7 billion in the quarter. IFRS earnings per share rose 14% to €1.96, while non-IFRS earnings per share increased 19% to €1.89. The company said it continues to invest in AI development and product enhancements while seeking to manage expenses in line with revenue growth. Klein said Joule Work Desktop is live for more than 110,000 SAP employees, with the company seeing productivity gains of 20% across central functions including finance, human resources and procurement. He added that SAP expects up to €3 billion in efficiency gains over the next two years through AI applications across engineering, sales, finance, HR and cloud operations. Asam said the company aims to contain total operating-expense growth, including cost of goods sold, to roughly 80% to 90% of top-line growth. SAP now expects to finish toward the upper end of its previously issued 2026 outlook for cloud revenue and cloud and software revenue. The company reaffirmed its guidance for current cloud backlog, operating profit and free cash flow. Asam said SAP still expects a slight deceleration in constant-currency current cloud backlog growth during 2026, citing macroeconomic and political uncertainty as well as a larger revenue base. He noted that the fourth quarter represents roughly 50% of SAP's annual bookings volume. The CFO said SAP continues to plan for an acceleration in total revenue growth in 2027, though he cautioned that fourth-quarter booking trends, macroeconomic conditions and the company's strategy of using services to drive cloud and AI adoption could make that trajectory more challenging. "We will put our full focus on the decisive fourth quarter bookings required to maintain our growth acceleration," Asam said. SAP SE is a global enterprise software company headquartered in Walldorf, Germany. Founded in 1972 by five former IBM employees, SAP originally developed software to help businesses integrate accounting and operational data. The company has since become a major provider of cloud-based business applications and enterprise technology. SAP's portfolio includes enterprise resource planning software, including SAP S/4HANA Cloud, along with solutions for finance, procurement, supply chain management, human resources, customer experience and business analytics. This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to [email protected]. The article "What SAP (SAP) Said on Its Q3 Earnings Call" was originally published by MarketBeat. View MarketBeat's top stocks for October 2026.

Related articleQuarter not tagged2026-10-22

SAP Stock Jumps After Earnings. How the Software Giant Became an AI Winner.

Barrons.com

The software apocalypse never came and the sector is enjoying a stellar recovery. But the winners and losers still need to be sorted.

Related articleQuarter not tagged2026-10-22

SAP points to upper end of cloud revenue outlook after quarterly growth

Proactive
SAP (NYSE:SAP) expects full-year 2026 cloud revenue and cloud and software revenue to reach the upper ends of its existing forecasts after quarterly revenue increased by 13% to €10.27 billion. The German enterprise software group's current cloud backlog, which measures contracted cloud business awaiting recognition as revenue, rose 28% to €24.1 billion in the three months to September, or 26% at constant currencies. Cloud revenue increased 26% to €6.67 billion, while revenue from the Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Suite grew 29% to €5.92 billion, reflecting continued demand for SAP's cloud-based business software. SAP now expects 2026 cloud revenue to be towards the upper end of its €25.8 billion to €26.2 billion forecast at constant currencies, representing growth of 23% to 25%. Cloud and software revenue is also expected to be towards the upper end of the €36.3 billion to €36.8 billion range, with growth of 12% to 13% at constant currency. The company maintained its forecast for adjusted operating profit of €11.8 billion to €12.2 billion, equivalent to a growth of 13% to 17% at constant currencies, and expects free cash flow of approximately €10 billion. SAP's third-quarter operating profit increased 18% to €2.93 billion under international financial reporting standards (IFRS), while adjusted operating profit rose 18% to €3.03 billion. Adjusted operating margin, which measures operating profit as a proportion of revenue, improved to 29.5% from 28.3% a year earlier, indicating stronger profitability alongside sales growth. However, cloud revenue growth benefited from a multi-quarter revenue catch-up from customers returning from financial distress, while operating profit growth also benefited from prior-year costs linked to tax litigation and workforce transformation. Profit after tax rose 11% to €2.27 billion, while basic earnings per share increased 14% to €1.96, and free cash flow for the quarter climbed 36% to €1.72 billion. For 2027, SAP expects total revenue growth at constant currencies to accelerate from 2026, although it anticipates operating expenses will increase by 80% to 90% of total revenue growth. The company also expects the rate of decline in software support revenue to accelerate over the coming years as more customers migrate to cloud services, highlighting the ongoing shift in its business model. SAP's 2026 cloud backlog outloo…Read full document

SAP (NYSE:SAP) expects full-year 2026 cloud revenue and cloud and software revenue to reach the upper ends of its existing forecasts after quarterly revenue increased by 13% to €10.27 billion. The German enterprise software group's current cloud backlog, which measures contracted cloud business awaiting recognition as revenue, rose 28% to €24.1 billion in the three months to September, or 26% at constant currencies. Cloud revenue increased 26% to €6.67 billion, while revenue from the Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Suite grew 29% to €5.92 billion, reflecting continued demand for SAP's cloud-based business software. SAP now expects 2026 cloud revenue to be towards the upper end of its €25.8 billion to €26.2 billion forecast at constant currencies, representing growth of 23% to 25%. Cloud and software revenue is also expected to be towards the upper end of the €36.3 billion to €36.8 billion range, with growth of 12% to 13% at constant currency. The company maintained its forecast for adjusted operating profit of €11.8 billion to €12.2 billion, equivalent to a growth of 13% to 17% at constant currencies, and expects free cash flow of approximately €10 billion. SAP's third-quarter operating profit increased 18% to €2.93 billion under international financial reporting standards (IFRS), while adjusted operating profit rose 18% to €3.03 billion. Adjusted operating margin, which measures operating profit as a proportion of revenue, improved to 29.5% from 28.3% a year earlier, indicating stronger profitability alongside sales growth. However, cloud revenue growth benefited from a multi-quarter revenue catch-up from customers returning from financial distress, while operating profit growth also benefited from prior-year costs linked to tax litigation and workforce transformation. Profit after tax rose 11% to €2.27 billion, while basic earnings per share increased 14% to €1.96, and free cash flow for the quarter climbed 36% to €1.72 billion. For 2027, SAP expects total revenue growth at constant currencies to accelerate from 2026, although it anticipates operating expenses will increase by 80% to 90% of total revenue growth. The company also expects the rate of decline in software support revenue to accelerate over the coming years as more customers migrate to cloud services, highlighting the ongoing shift in its business model. SAP's 2026 cloud backlog outlook assumes a stable macroeconomic environment in the fourth quarter, leaving its near-term growth expectations dependent partly on trading conditions. In New York, shares of SAP were trading up 2.4% premarket Thursday.

Related articleQuarter not tagged2026-10-22

SAP (XTRA:SAP) Stock Price Faces Q3 Earnings Valuation Reckoning

Simply Wall St.
SAP just delivered Q3 2026 numbers that pushed it past the €10b quarterly revenue mark for the first time, with net income of €2.249b setting the profit tone. The stock closed at €215.45 on 22 October, capping a powerful 90 day run. Expectations coming into this release were already heated. Cloud performance is the emotional trigger. Investors are reacting to a business that reported €10.27b in total revenue and a rising earnings base, while the share price has already priced in a lot of optimism. The real question now is whether today's one day move reflects those fundamentals or stretches them. Excited by SAP clearing €10b in quarterly revenue but worried the recent share price surge has already baked in a lot of optimism? Compare this setup with a curated group of sturdier balance sheet ideas in our list of solid balance sheet and fundamentals stocks (203 results). - Total Revenue (Q3 2026 vs Q3 2025): €10,270m vs. €9,076m (+13.2%) - Net Income (Excl. Extra Items, Q3 2026 vs Q3 2025): €2,249m vs. €2,004m (+12.2%) - Basic EPS (Q3 2026 vs Q3 2025): €1.96 vs. €1.72 (+13.9%) - Trailing 12-Month Net Income (Excl. Extra Items, Q3 2026 vs Q3 2025): €8,040m vs. €7,082m (+13.5%) Earnings tell part of SAP's story, but investors who care about what they are actually paying for usually study the cash moving through the business. Looking at SAP's cash flows in isolation, the stock could be a dramatic 31% undervalued. Bulls argue that SAP's second growth layer depends on AI tools turning interest into paid usage at scale. "The main requirement is that SAP converts strong interest in its Business AI platform, Joule Work and hundreds of planned autonomous agents into sustained adoption and economically attractive consumption revenue, while managing AI related costs and integration rules." Q3 shows real progress. Cloud revenue reached €6.7b and current cloud backlog hit €24.1b, with AI and Business Data Cloud cited in 9 of the top 50 deals. Services income fell as SAP pushed non billable adoption work, which points to AI tied deeper into ERP rather than hype with no follow through. More cautious investors worry that AI usage, integrations and acquisitions might drag on profitability even as cloud metrics stay strong. "Management has already trimmed its non IFRS operating profit outlook for 2026 while keeping cloud revenue and backlog guidance unchanged. If similar downwar…Read full document

SAP just delivered Q3 2026 numbers that pushed it past the €10b quarterly revenue mark for the first time, with net income of €2.249b setting the profit tone. The stock closed at €215.45 on 22 October, capping a powerful 90 day run. Expectations coming into this release were already heated. Cloud performance is the emotional trigger. Investors are reacting to a business that reported €10.27b in total revenue and a rising earnings base, while the share price has already priced in a lot of optimism. The real question now is whether today's one day move reflects those fundamentals or stretches them. Excited by SAP clearing €10b in quarterly revenue but worried the recent share price surge has already baked in a lot of optimism? Compare this setup with a curated group of sturdier balance sheet ideas in our list of solid balance sheet and fundamentals stocks (203 results). - Total Revenue (Q3 2026 vs Q3 2025): €10,270m vs. €9,076m (+13.2%) - Net Income (Excl. Extra Items, Q3 2026 vs Q3 2025): €2,249m vs. €2,004m (+12.2%) - Basic EPS (Q3 2026 vs Q3 2025): €1.96 vs. €1.72 (+13.9%) - Trailing 12-Month Net Income (Excl. Extra Items, Q3 2026 vs Q3 2025): €8,040m vs. €7,082m (+13.5%) Earnings tell part of SAP's story, but investors who care about what they are actually paying for usually study the cash moving through the business. Looking at SAP's cash flows in isolation, the stock could be a dramatic 31% undervalued. Bulls argue that SAP's second growth layer depends on AI tools turning interest into paid usage at scale. "The main requirement is that SAP converts strong interest in its Business AI platform, Joule Work and hundreds of planned autonomous agents into sustained adoption and economically attractive consumption revenue, while managing AI related costs and integration rules." Q3 shows real progress. Cloud revenue reached €6.7b and current cloud backlog hit €24.1b, with AI and Business Data Cloud cited in 9 of the top 50 deals. Services income fell as SAP pushed non billable adoption work, which points to AI tied deeper into ERP rather than hype with no follow through. More cautious investors worry that AI usage, integrations and acquisitions might drag on profitability even as cloud metrics stay strong. "Management has already trimmed its non IFRS operating profit outlook for 2026 while keeping cloud revenue and backlog guidance unchanged. If similar downward revisions recur without a corresponding reset to top line expectations, investors could question the profitability of SAP's AI and data investments, which may weigh on the share price and limit any rerating on P/E that underpins the bullish narrative." Q3 offers a partial rebuttal. Non IFRS operating profit grew 18% to more than €3b and 2026 profit and free cash flow guidance were reaffirmed. Cloud gross margin slipped about 0.7 percentage points, so AI cost discipline remains an open test, not a passed exam. The price and this Narrative do not agree. → Uncover what this Narrative says SAP is actually worth. SAP just reported a quarter that refocused attention on how AI, cloud and profit quality shape expectations. The real opportunity is studying stocks that could be undervalued before stronger earnings power is fully recognized. - Company 1 - 47% below our estimate - turns a record construction backlog of data center and modular projects into higher utilization on complex, technology heavy jobs. - Company 2 - 23% below our estimate - supplies grid testing and RF systems as utilities and aerospace contractors upgrade equipment for electrification and defense programs. - Company 3 - 33% below our estimate - signs long term AI infrastructure and database contracts that shift heavy upfront spending into future subscription and consumption revenue. Three companies from the same screener. Open every one of the 196 undervalued companies on it → This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned. Companies discussed in this article include SAP.DE. Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email [email protected]

Related articleQuarter not tagged2026-10-21

SAP shares climb after Q3 earnings beat and strong cloud revenue outlook

Investing.com

Investing.com -- SAP SE ADRs (NYSE:SAP) rose over 4% in after-hours trading Wednesday after the enterprise software giant delivered third-quarter results that topped Wall Street expectations across key metrics and raised its full-year revenue outlook. Still guessing which stocks will beat the market? Our AI portfolio updates monthly and is outperforming the S&P 500 by 118%. See this month's list » The Germany-based company reported non-IFRS earnings of €1.89 per share on total revenue of €10.27 billion, ahead of analyst estimates pointing to €1.83 per share and €10.10 billion, respectively. Strong demand for enterprise cloud transformations drove a 26% jump in cloud revenue to €6.67 billion, while current cloud backlog expanded 28% to €24.14 billion, reflecting sustained adoption of the company's core software platform. Unsure what to buy ahead of earnings? Our AI's recent pre-earnings calls delivered gains of +77% to +118% after results dropped. See this month's earnings picks » Against that backdrop, management narrowed its 2026 financial guidance toward the upper bound of previous expectations. SAP now expects full-year cloud revenue to land at the high end of its €25.8 billion to €26.2 billion target range, while maintaining its projection for non-IFRS operating profit between €11.8 billion and €12.2 billion. The quarter highlighted ongoing operational execution alongside disciplined cost controls as non-IFRS operating profit rose 18% to €3.03 billion, helping offset ongoing declines in legacy software support revenues. Chief Executive Officer Christian Klein noted that enterprise customers are increasingly committing to the company's Business AI offerings and automated tools to drive operational transformations. Meanwhile, liquidity generation remained strong as free cash flow surged 36% during the quarter to €1.72 billion. The company also continued to return capital to shareholders, repurchasing approximately €4.2 billion worth of shares through the end of September under its multi-year €10 billion buyback program. Original Article SAP shares climb after Q3 earnings beat and strong cloud revenue outlook Tesla shares reverse course as robotics, chipmaking caution overshadows upbeat Q3 IBM shares climb on earnings beat

Related articleQuarter not tagged2026-10-21

SAP Quarterly Statement Q3 2026

PR Newswire
- Current cloud backlog of €24.1 billion, up 28% and up 26% at constant currencies - Cloud revenue up 26% and up 25% at constant currencies - Cloud ERP Suite revenue up 29% and up 28% at constant currencies - Total revenue up 13% and up 12% at constant currencies - IFRS operating profit up 18%, non-IFRS operating profit up 18%, both at nominal and constant currencies - SAP updates its 2026 cloud revenue and cloud and software revenue outlook Christian Klein, CEO: Q3 was an outstanding quarter, with current cloud backlog up 26% at constant currencies. Our Autonomous Enterprise strategy is not just resonating, it is being adopted. Our customers are investing in the technology behind it – from the cloud and data foundation to our Business AI. They see that Joule Work makes the business case for their transformation more attractive than ever. Dominik Asam, CFO: For the first time, SAP crossed €10 billion in total quarterly revenue and €3 billion of non-IFRS operating profit, reflecting the strength and scalability of our business model. Our disciplined approach to cost management, paired with continued cloud momentum, demonstrates our ability to grow both the top and bottom line at the same time. WALLDORF, Germany, Oct. 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) announced today its financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2026. Group Results at a Glance Third quarter 2026 | IFRS | | Non-IFRS1 € million, unless otherwise stated | Q3 2026 | Q3 2025 | ∆ in % | | Q3 2026 | Q3 2025 | ∆ in % | ∆ in % const. curr. Current cloud backlog | | | | | 24,144 | 18,839 | 28 | 26 SaaS/PaaS2 | 6,612 | 5,212 | 27 | | 6,612 | 5,212 | 27 | 26 Thereof Cloud ERP Suite2 | 5,924 | 4,586 | 29 | | 5,924 | 4,586 | 29 | 28 Thereof Extension Suite2 | 688 | 627 | 10 | | 688 | 627 | 10 | 8 IaaS2 | 56 | 78 | –27 | | 56 | 78 | –27 | –27 Cloud revenue | 6,668 | 5,290 | 26 | | 6,668 | 5,290 | 26 | 25 Software licenses revenue | 147 | 161 | –9 | | 147 | 161 | –9 | –9 Software support revenue | 2,434 | 2,565 | –5 | | 2,434 | 2,565 | –5 | –6 Cloud and software revenue | 9,249 | 8,016 | 15 | | 9,249 | 8,016 | 15 | 14 Services Revenue | 1,021 | 1,060 | –4 | | 1,021 | 1,060 | –4 | –5 Total revenue | 10,270 | 9,076 | 13 | | 10,270 | 9,076 | 13 | 12 Cloud gross profit | 4,930 | 3,948 | 25 | | 4,956 | 3,972 | 25 | 24 Cloud gross margin (in %) | 73.9 | 74.6 | –0.7pp |…Read full document

- Current cloud backlog of €24.1 billion, up 28% and up 26% at constant currencies - Cloud revenue up 26% and up 25% at constant currencies - Cloud ERP Suite revenue up 29% and up 28% at constant currencies - Total revenue up 13% and up 12% at constant currencies - IFRS operating profit up 18%, non-IFRS operating profit up 18%, both at nominal and constant currencies - SAP updates its 2026 cloud revenue and cloud and software revenue outlook Christian Klein, CEO: Q3 was an outstanding quarter, with current cloud backlog up 26% at constant currencies. Our Autonomous Enterprise strategy is not just resonating, it is being adopted. Our customers are investing in the technology behind it – from the cloud and data foundation to our Business AI. They see that Joule Work makes the business case for their transformation more attractive than ever. Dominik Asam, CFO: For the first time, SAP crossed €10 billion in total quarterly revenue and €3 billion of non-IFRS operating profit, reflecting the strength and scalability of our business model. Our disciplined approach to cost management, paired with continued cloud momentum, demonstrates our ability to grow both the top and bottom line at the same time. WALLDORF, Germany, Oct. 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) announced today its financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2026. Group Results at a Glance Third quarter 2026 | IFRS | | Non-IFRS1 € million, unless otherwise stated | Q3 2026 | Q3 2025 | ∆ in % | | Q3 2026 | Q3 2025 | ∆ in % | ∆ in % const. curr. Current cloud backlog | | | | | 24,144 | 18,839 | 28 | 26 SaaS/PaaS2 | 6,612 | 5,212 | 27 | | 6,612 | 5,212 | 27 | 26 Thereof Cloud ERP Suite2 | 5,924 | 4,586 | 29 | | 5,924 | 4,586 | 29 | 28 Thereof Extension Suite2 | 688 | 627 | 10 | | 688 | 627 | 10 | 8 IaaS2 | 56 | 78 | –27 | | 56 | 78 | –27 | –27 Cloud revenue | 6,668 | 5,290 | 26 | | 6,668 | 5,290 | 26 | 25 Software licenses revenue | 147 | 161 | –9 | | 147 | 161 | –9 | –9 Software support revenue | 2,434 | 2,565 | –5 | | 2,434 | 2,565 | –5 | –6 Cloud and software revenue | 9,249 | 8,016 | 15 | | 9,249 | 8,016 | 15 | 14 Services Revenue | 1,021 | 1,060 | –4 | | 1,021 | 1,060 | –4 | –5 Total revenue | 10,270 | 9,076 | 13 | | 10,270 | 9,076 | 13 | 12 Cloud gross profit | 4,930 | 3,948 | 25 | | 4,956 | 3,972 | 25 | 24 Cloud gross margin (in %) | 73.9 | 74.6 | –0.7pp | | 74.3 | 75.1 | –0.8pp | –0.7pp Gross profit | 7,510 | 6,671 | 13 | | 7,543 | 6,696 | 13 | 12 Gross margin (in %) | 73.1 | 73.5 | –0.4pp | | 73.4 | 73.8 | –0.3pp | –0.3pp Operating profit (loss) | 2,930 | 2,487 | 18 | | 3,030 | 2,566 | 18 | 18 Operating margin (in %) | 28.5 | 27.4 | 1.1pp | | 29.5 | 28.3 | 1.2pp | 1.5pp Profit (loss) after tax | 2,269 | 2,051 | 11 | | 2,171 | 1,852 | 17 | Earnings per share - Basic (in €) | 1.96 | 1.72 | 14 | | 1.89 | 1.59 | 19 | Net cash flows from operating activities | 1,920 | 1,502 | 28 | | | | | Free cash flow | | | | | 1,718 | 1,266 | 36 | 1 For a breakdown of the individual adjustments see table Non-IFRS Operating Expense Adjustments by Functional Areas in the Quarterly Statement. 2 For a definition of Cloud ERP Suite and Extension Suite, see the Performance Management System chapter in the 2025 Integrated Report. For an Explanation of IaaS, SaaS, and PaaS, see the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements of the Integrated Report 2025, Note (A.1). Nine months ended September 2026 | IFRS | | Non-IFRS1 € million, unless otherwise stated | Q1–Q32026 | Q1–Q32025 | ∆ in % | | Q1–Q32026 | Q1–Q32025 | ∆ in % | ∆ in % const. curr. Current cloud backlog | | | | | 24,144 | 18,839 | 28 | 26 SaaS/PaaS2 | 18,724 | 15,148 | 24 | | 18,724 | 15,148 | 24 | 26 Thereof Cloud ERP Suite2 | 16,662 | 13,258 | 26 | | 16,662 | 13,258 | 26 | 28 Thereof Extension Suite2 | 2,062 | 1,889 | 9 | | 2,062 | 1,889 | 9 | 11 IaaS2 | 187 | 266 | –29 | | 187 | 266 | –29 | –28 Cloud revenue | 18,911 | 15,413 | 23 | | 18,911 | 15,413 | 23 | 25 Software licenses revenue | 395 | 538 | –27 | | 395 | 538 | –27 | –26 Software support revenue | 7,342 | 7,969 | –8 | | 7,342 | 7,969 | –8 | –6 Cloud and software revenue | 26,648 | 23,920 | 11 | | 26,648 | 23,920 | 11 | 14 Services Revenue | 3,055 | 3,196 | –4 | | 3,055 | 3,196 | –4 | –3 Total revenue | 29,703 | 27,116 | 10 | | 29,703 | 27,116 | 10 | 12 Cloud gross profit | 14,044 | 11,501 | 22 | | 14,124 | 11,573 | 22 | 25 Cloud gross margin (in %) | 74.3 | 74.6 | –0.4pp | | 74.7 | 75.1 | –0.4pp | –0.5pp Gross profit | 21,710 | 19,898 | 9 | | 21,806 | 19,971 | 9 | 11 Gross margin (in %) | 73.1 | 73.4 | –0.3pp | | 73.4 | 73.6 | –0.2pp | –0.3pp Operating profit (loss) | 8,313 | 7,276 | 14 | | 8,639 | 7,590 | 14 | 17 Operating margin (in %) | 28.0 | 26.8 | 1.2pp | | 29.1 | 28.0 | 1.1pp | 1.3pp Profit (loss) after tax | 6,424 | 5,596 | 15 | | 6,001 | 5,280 | 14 | Earnings per share - Basic (in €) | 5.50 | 4.70 | 17 | | 5.20 | 4.53 | 15 | Net cash flows from operating activities | 8,586 | 7,859 | 9 | | | | | Free cash flow | | | | | 7,968 | 7,205 | 11 | 1 For a breakdown of the individual adjustments see table Non-IFRS Operating Expense Adjustments by Functional Areas in the Quarterly Statement. 2 For a definition of Cloud ERP Suite and Extension Suite, see the Performance Management System chapter in the 2025 Integrated Report. For an Explanation of IaaS, SaaS, and PaaS, see the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements of the Integrated Report 2025, Note (A.1). Supplementary Information[1] Financial Results Cloud revenue growth was positively impacted by several quarter-specific effects, mainly a multi-quarter revenue catch-up from customers returning from financial distress. Total revenue in the third quarter included a contribution of €49 million from the acquisitions of Reltio, Dremio, and Prior Labs. IFRS and non-IFRS operating profit included a negative contribution of €59 million and €39 million, respectively, from the aforementioned acquisitions. In addition, IFRS and non-IFRS operating profit growth benefited from prior year negative impacts of €0.1 billion each from a change in case law affecting SAP's other tax litigation and from a workforce transformation, both recorded in the third quarter of 2025. Share Repurchase Program In January 2026, SAP announced a new share repurchase program with an aggregate volume of up to €10 billion and a term until December 31, 2027. As of September 30, 2026, SAP had repurchased 25,205,983 shares at an average price of €164.79 resulting in a purchased volume of approximately €4.2 billion under the program. Outlook Financial Outlook For 2026, SAP is updating its cloud revenue and cloud and software revenue outlook and now expects: - To generate cloud revenue towards the upper end of the outlook range of €25.8 – 26.2 billion at constant currencies (2025: €21.02 billion), up 23% to 25% at constant currencies. - To generate cloud and software revenue towards the upper end of the outlook range of €36.3 – 36.8 billion at constant currencies (2025: €32.54 billion), up 12% to 13% at constant currencies. SAP continues to expect: - €11.8 – 12.2 billion operating profit (non-IFRS) at constant currencies (2025: €10.42 billion), up 13% to 17% at constant currencies. - Approximately €10 billion free cash flow at actual currencies (2025: €8.24 billion). - An effective tax rate (non-IFRS) of approximately 29% (2025: 30.5%)[2]. - Constant currencies current cloud backlog growth to slightly decelerate (2025: 25%). SAP further expects: - Constant currencies total revenue growth in 2026 to remain at similar levels as in 2025 (10.6%) and to accelerate in 2027. - Total operating expenses (non-IFRS) to grow at 80% to 90% of total revenue growth in 2027. - Constant currencies software support revenue decline rate to accelerate in the coming years as a consequence of an acceleration of customers transforming to the cloud. SAP's current cloud backlog outlook for full-year 2026 is based on the assumption of a stable macroeconomic environment in the fourth quarter. While SAP's 2026 financial outlook for the income statement parameters is at constant currencies (including an average exchange rate of 1.13 USD per EUR), actual currency reported figures are expected to be impacted by currency exchange rate fluctuations as the company progresses through the year, as reflected in the table below. Currency Impact Assuming September 30, 2026 Rates Apply for 2026 In percentage points | Q4 2026 | FY 2026 Cloud revenue growth | 2.0pp | -1.5pp Cloud and software revenue growth | 1.5pp | -1.0pp Operating profit growth (non-IFRS) | 1.0pp | -2.0pp This includes an exchange rate of 1.14 USD per EUR. Non-Financial Outlook For 2026, SAP continues to expect: - Cloud Customer Satisfaction (Cloud CSAT) to be in a range of 75% to 76% (2025: 75%). - The Employee Engagement Index to be in a range of 74% to 78% (2025: 76%). - The Business Health Culture Index (BHCI) to be in a range of 80% to 82% (2025: 81%). - To steadily decrease carbon emissions across the relevant value chain (2025: 3.6 Mt). Business Highlights In the third quarter, customers around the globe continued to choose the "RISE with SAP" journey. These customers included: AstraZeneca, Aydem Enerji, Banco Bilbao, Fairstone Bank of Canada, Grupo SBF, Infineon Technologies, Nagel Group Logistics, and NTN Corporation. A5X, Bitzer, BLACKROLL, Greenbrier Maxion (GBMX), Krannich Solar Group, Petroplus, Rittal, and SUZHOU ELE.MFG chose "SAP GROW". Austrian Post (Österreichische Post), Commerz Real, Decathlon, Fraport, Henkel, MAN INDUSTRIES LIMITED, and Toyota Motor Philippines Corporation chose SAP's AI and data solutions. Key customer wins across SAP's solution portfolio included: Chery Automobile, DOUGLAS Group, Helvetia Holding, Kao Corporation, NTT DATA, Tauranga City Council, and Wipro. Bertelsmann, Eldorado Brasil, enersuisse, HUGO BOSS, Infineum, Infosys, Mondelez, Panasonic, Roche, and Thalia Bücher went live on SAP solutions in the third quarter. In the third quarter, SAP's cloud revenue performance was particularly strong in APJ and EMEA and solid in the Americas region. Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, India, South Korea and Spain had outstanding performance, while Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the U.S. were particularly strong. On July 6, SAP announced that it has completed the acquisition of Dremio, an open, high-performance data lakehouse platform. On July 17, SAP announced that it has completed the acquisition of Prior Labs, the pioneer of Tabular Foundation Models (TFMs). On October 6, SAP showcased the Autonomous Enterprise in action at SAP Connect, demonstrating how Joule Work and Joule Assistants generate value for customers across every line of business. In addition, SAP announced that they entered into an agreement for SAP to acquire TechWolf, a provider of a leading AI work intelligence platform. Additional Information This quarterly statement and all information therein are preliminary and unaudited. Due to rounding, numbers may not add up precisely. The Q3 2026 Quarterly Statement can be downloaded from: https://www.sap.com/docs/download/investors/2026/sap-2026-q3-statement.pdf. SAP Performance Measures For more information about our key growth metrics and performance measures, their calculation, their usefulness, and their limitations, please refer to the following document on our Investor Relations website: https://www.sap.com/investors/en/financial-documents-and-events/reporting-framework.html. Webcast SAP senior management will host a financial analyst conference call on Wednesday, October 21st at 11:00 PM (CEST) / 10:00 PM (BST) / 5:00 PM (EDT) / 2:00 PM (PDT). The conference will be webcast on the Company's website at https://www.sap.com/investor and will be available for replay. Supplementary financial information pertaining to the third quarter results can be found at https://www.sap.com/investor. About SAP As a global leader in enterprise applications and business AI, SAP (NYSE: SAP) stands at the nexus of business and technology. For over 50 years, organizations have trusted SAP to bring out their best by uniting business-critical operations spanning finance, procurement, HR, supply chain, and customer experience. For more information, visit www.sap.com. For more information, financial community only: Alexandra Steiger +49 (6227) 7-767336 [email protected], CET Follow SAP Investor Relations on LinkedIn at SAP Investor Relations. For customers interested in learning more about SAP products: Global Customer Center: +49 180 534-34-24 United States Only: +1 (800) 872-1SAP (+1-800-872-1727) Note to editors: To preview and download broadcast-standard stock footage and press photos digitally, please visit www.sap.com/photos. On this platform, you can find high resolution material for your media channels. This document contains forward-looking statements, which are predictions, projections, or other statements about future events. These statements are based on current expectations, forecasts, and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and outcomes to materially differ. Additional information regarding these risks and uncertainties may be found in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to the risk factors section of SAP's 2025 Annual Report on Form 20-F. © 2026 SAP SE. All rights reserved. SAP and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP SE in Germany and other countries. Please see https://www.sap.com/copyright for additional trademark information and notices. [1] The Q3 2026 results were also impacted by other effects. For details, please refer to the disclosures on page 21 of the Quarterly Statement. [2] The effective tax rate (non-IFRS) is a non-IFRS financial measure and is presented for supplemental informational purposes only. We do not provide an outlook for the effective tax rate (IFRS) due to the uncertainty and potential variability of gains and losses associated with equity securities, which are reconciling items between the two effective tax rates (non-IFRS and IFRS). These items cannot be provided without unreasonable efforts but could have a significant impact on our future effective tax rate (IFRS). View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sap-quarterly-statement-q3-2026-302915956.html

TranscriptFY2026 Q32026-10-21

FY2026 Q3 earnings call transcript

Earnings source - 94 paragraphs
Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome and thank you for joining the SAP Q3 Pardon the interruption, everyone. We are going to start that one more time. We are not live with our audience. We are going live right now, and I am going to do that countdown again. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome and thank you for joining the SAP Q3 2026 financial results conference call. Throughout today's recorded presentation, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. The presentation will be followed by a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, you may press star followed by one on your touch tone telephone. I would now like to turn the conference over to Alexandra Steiger, Global Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Alexandra Steiger

Good evening, everyone, and welcome. Thank you for joining us. With me today, our CEO, Christian Klein, and our CFO, Dominik Asam. On this call, we will discuss SAP's third quarter 2026 results. You can find the deck supplementing this call, as well as our quarterly statement on our investor relations website. During this call, we will make forward-looking statements which are predictions, projections, or other statements about future events. These statements are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and outcomes to differ materially. Additional information regarding these risks and uncertainties may be found in our filings with the SEC, including, but not limited to the risk factor section of our annual report on Form 20-F for 2025.

Alexandra Steiger

Unless otherwise stated, all numbers on this call are non-IFRS, and growth rates and percentage point changes are non-IFRS year-on-year at constant currencies. The non-IFRS financial measures we provide should not be considered as a substitute for or superior to the measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with IFRS. With that, over to you, Christian.

Christian Klein

Yes. Thank you, Alexandra, and welcome to everyone joining us. Q3 was an outstanding quarter. We brought the autonomous enterprise to life. Customers are now getting their hands on our latest AI capabilities, and the response has been incredible. Our strategy is not just resonating, it is being adopted. Here is what that looks like in the Q3 numbers. The growing cloud backlog reached EUR 24.1 billion, up 26%. Cloud revenue was EUR 6.7 billion, up 25% in constant currencies. The strong growth in cloud revenue was significantly driven by our business AI data and platform business. Continuing the trend from recent quarters, nine out of 10 of our 50 largest deals included AI and Business Data Cloud. Total revenue for the quarter was EUR 10.3 billion, up 12%.

Christian Klein

This is the first time in SAP's history that quarterly revenue crossed EUR 10 billion. Operating profit grew 18% to more than EUR 3 billion.

Christian Klein

We are extending our leading position by winning market share at scale. According to IDC, we are growing about 11 percentage points faster than the market. In Q3, AI was the main driver behind our customers' move to the cloud. There are three key reasons. First, AI accelerates the RISE and GROW cloud migration. Second, AI makes the business case for our suite more attractive. Finally, our customers embrace our business AI platform with RISE and GROW. They know it's essential for building the data and process foundation required for high-quality enterprise-grade AI. RISE and business AI are winning across every sector. We added new customers in financial services with BBVA and FirstBank of Canada. Technology and research with Infineon and Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. Manufacturing with NTN Corporation, and logistics with [Inaudible] and the U.S. Defense Logistics Agency. On the GROW side, AI is also a key differentiator.

Christian Klein

For example, Greenbrier Maxion, South America's largest railway manufacturer, plans to use Joule to boost real-time operational visibility. Other GROW wins included Petroplus, A5X, and BLACKROLL. Industry AI is becoming a critical differentiator, especially in large enterprises. We saw wins such as AstraZeneca, where we are actively co-developing AI solutions for the life science industry. Decathlon will be leveraging our AI to build a foundation for a more intelligent, automated, and customer-focused business. Meanwhile, Danish retailer Salling Group uses industry AI to manage suppliers, classify new products, and trigger supply chain actions. Time to shelf improved by up to 66%. Manual category management time was cut by up to 70%. Further AI wins came from MAN Industries Limited, building what they call a once in a generation digital foundation to unify operations. Hengli chose our business AI platform for more efficient finance processes and improved decision-making.

Christian Klein

Austrian Post, Commerz Real, and Fraport selected BDC. In solution areas and LOBs, Kao Corporation went with SAP Signavio, NTT DATA with our procurement solutions, and Helvetia Group with SuccessFactors. IDC estimates that SAP is growing more than 1.7x faster than the overall HCM market year-over-year. Many customers went live with RISE in Q3, including Mondelez, Panasonic, Roche, Infosys, and Panasonic. We also saw HUGO BOSS with SuccessFactors and WalkMe, Thalia Bücher with SAP Warehouse Solutions, and Bertelsmann with SmartRecruiters. In Q3, we already saw the great impact of the autonomous enterprise strategy on our business and in our numbers. Let's start with what customers see, Joule Work. This is where enterprise AI finally becomes usable. Our 400 million SAP users can now work with SAP in natural language and Joule gets the job done. It is based on three key capabilities.

Christian Klein

First, conversations, the way users get work done. Here, users ask questions and delegate tasks in natural language. Joule handles every work directly, but when a task requires more than just a query, the user can use Joule to call a specialized agent. Take a supply chain planner. They can ask Joule to summarize the supplier contract, then delegate the resolution of a supplier shortfall to an agent that identifies an alternative source and triggers the production adjustment directly in SAP. Second, Spaces, the live view across system. Joule Spaces brings data together into a single, always up-to-date view, so users don't have to build PowerPoints and Excel spreadsheets. For our supply chain planner, they have a space combining live IBP and S/4HANA data with a real-time supply chain risk summary. They can see current demand, supply, and the risk all in one place.

Christian Klein

Third, Joule Studio, the way to extend our agents or build your own from no-code to pro-code and with seamless integration of end-to-end. With Joule Studio, customers extend SAP's agents or create new ones for their specific needs. Here, the planners team can use the supplier resolution agent and tailor it to their own sourcing rules without starting from scratch. As the example showed, Joule Work serves every business user. It is much more than an AI chatbot. It is the workbench for the autonomous enterprise. This is true for users who need a presentation, a dashboard, an email, or solutions for even the most complex enterprise challenges, thanks to our 40 assistants and 300 agents across the autonomous suite. While I'm pleased with the progress we made, the focus is quality over quantity. One well-designed agent can outperform several fine-grained ones. That is how we build.

Christian Klein

With Joule Work Desktop, companies like Reinhausen see the potential to permanently transform how their teams interact with business data. The same shift is happening in finance at Accenture. In their words, their Joule journey is not about deploying another AI tool. It is about working differently. Danfoss shared that the sourcing assistant has significantly improved the efficiency and quality of RFP creation. What makes Joule Work and the autonomous suite different is what lies behind this simple experience, our SAP Business AI Platform, the place to build, contextualize, and govern AI. Let's look at this in more detail, starting with build. Joule Studio gives every developer and domain expert the tools to create, extend, and deploy agents on top of SAP's platform. When building custom solutions, customers can select the best model for each use case.

Christian Klein

SAP offers access to more than 70 models, both frontier and open weight. Unlike some of our peers, SAP is not committing to a preferred model. We give our customers choice, and we will always make sure that they have access to the best options available. Moving on to context and reason. Joule draws from the deepest business context in the industry through our knowledge graph, anchored in BDC, mapping more than 7 million fields and half a million tables, along with 400 data products and our full process knowledge. With our acquisitions of Dremio and Reltio, we extend that reach far beyond SAP data and give customers a unified context layer across their entire data landscape. This structured business ontology means Joule can solve even the most complex tasks with high accuracy, faster results, and better pro-

Operator

Pardon the interruption. One moment while we reestablish our audio. Thank you everyone for your patience. Please continue to stand by while we reestablish the audio.

Christian Klein

I'm upbeat.

Operator

We are live now again. Please go ahead.

Christian Klein

Okay, thank you.

Christian Klein

Okay, here we go again. Starting with build, Joule Studio gives every developer and domain expert the tools to create, extend, and deploy agents on top of SAP's platform. When building custom solutions, customers can select the best model for each use case. SAP offers access to more than 70 models, both frontier and open weight. Unlike some of our peers, SAP is not committing to a preferred model. We give our customers choice, and we will always make sure they have access to the best options available. Moving on to context and reason. Joule draws from the deepest business context in the industry through our knowledge graph, anchored in BDC, mapping more than 7 million fields and half a million tables, along with 400 data products and our full process knowledge.

Christian Klein

With our acquisitions of Reltio and LeanIX, we extend that reach far beyond SAP data and give customers a unified context layer across their entire data landscape. The structured business ontology means Joule can solve even the most complex tasks with higher accuracy, faster results, and better price performance. In Ariba, Joule delivers twice the accuracy of leading frontier models at half the token cost. We are continuously deepening the ontology itself. Our intent to acquire TechWolf is a good example. It puts us at the heart of every people transformation and extends our ontology into skills and workforce intelligence. Finally, governance. Joule Work comes with governance and security baked in. Every agent built on the Business AI Platform is run and governed by SAP. We ensure identity and authorization management, compliance with regulations across 60 countries and 26 industries, and certifications by auditors.

Christian Klein

Our AI Agent Hub in LeanIX provides one central inventory to manage and govern every SAP and non-SAP agent. One key principle is very important. At SAP, the customer's data remains the customer's data. We never upload customer data or process IP into large language models, not for training, not for model improvement, not for any purpose. That commitment shapes every partnership with the model providers we make. In a nutshell, we bring together the best models with the deepest business context and govern all of that across our customers' entire agent landscape. That is why SAP provides the business AI for the enterprise. We will share more announcements across all these areas at TechEd next week. The story is not just what we ship, it is how we transform into an autonomous enterprise ourselves. We are reinventing, once again, SAP's own operating model.

Christian Klein

First, in engineering. Our 40,000 developers are not just building AI. They are working AI first, guided by clear principles. We are co-innovating with customers, increasing speed, and focusing on the data and ontology our AI agents need. The results are clear. Our developers completed approximately 70% more code contributions since beginning of the year. Second, in go-to-market, we are using AI everywhere to transform how we engage with customers. This includes running targeted campaigns to attract the right leads and evolving our consulting services into an AI factory to accelerate adoption. The same holds true for AI across our corporate functions. Across SAP, our Joule Work Desktop is live for more than 110,000 employees. We are already seeing productivity gains of 20% across our central functions like finance, HR, and procurement, with even more productivity gains on more complex analytical and planning tasks. Let me summarize.

Christian Klein

Q3 was an outstanding quarter. We are successfully executing in a volatile world because our customers see AI as a critical lever for competitiveness and resilience. Our pipeline for Q4 looks strong. At the same time, we remain mindful that Q4 is always our biggest and most important quarter with the greatest movement. Our teams are in full execution mode. The best enterprise AI is not the loudest. It is the AI you can trust to run your business. SAP is that AI, and we are turning that opportunity into results today. With that, I will hand over to Dominik.

Dominik Asam

Thank you very much, Christian, and thank you all for joining us this evening. Q3 was another strong quarter, as reflected by current cloud backlog expansion and healthy operating profit growth. We continue to see our work bearing fruit as we move closer towards our vision of an autonomous enterprise. SAP remains mission-critical for its customers who want to fundamentally change the way they do work by virtue of AI. As Christian alluded to in his prepared remarks, SAP continues to set the standard for large-scale business transformation and now leads the way in redefining how enterprises run in the age of AI. Today, our Early Adopter Care Program validates our progress and has been overwhelmingly positively received by customers, a step change versus a year ago.

Dominik Asam

The second half is off to a strong start, and we remain committed to investing in growth while preserving our bottom line in lockstep with the operational framework we've put in place by balancing expense versus revenue growth. We continue to be excited for what's to come and remain focused on capitalizing on what's clearly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for SAP and our customers. Now, let me provide more details on our financial highlights. Current cloud backlog surpassed EUR 24 billion, up 26%. SAP continues to be the undisputed large-scale enterprise SaaS and PaaS vendor in terms of growth. While we continue to expect a slight deceleration in constant currencies current cloud backlog growth in 2026, we do foresee continued market share gains.

Dominik Asam

As we outlined at the beginning of the year, the slight deceleration is attributable to several factors, including the continued political macroeconomic uncertainty we see today that could impact our largest booking quarter, which is, of course, the fourth, as well as a rapidly expanding base that continues to grow in absolute terms every year. Cloud revenue grew to approximately EUR 6.7 billion, up 25%, helped by several one-off positive effects, which added approximately one percentage point of growth in Q3. This was due to largely a positive revenue recognition effect, which in turn mainly stemmed from a catch-up of revenues from customers returning from financial distress. Cloud ERP suite revenue increased by 28% in Q3, now accounting for 89% of total cloud revenue. Software licenses revenue decreased by 9%.

Dominik Asam

Finally, total revenue in the third quarter was EUR 10.3 billion, up 12%, a remarkable result when taking a minus 5% year-on-year decline in services into account. Now, let's take a brief look at our regional performance. In the third quarter, SAP's cloud revenue performance was particularly strong in APJ and EMEA, and solid in the Americas region. Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, India, South Korea, and Spain had outstanding performance. While Switzerland, the U.K., and the U.S. were particularly strong. Now, moving down the income statement. Our IFRS cloud gross margin in Q3 was 73.9%, and non-IFRS was 74.3%, down 0.7 percentage points year-on-year. IFRS operating profit increased by 18% to EUR 2.9 billion. Non-IFRS operating profit was also up by 18%, now surpassing EUR 3 billion.

Dominik Asam

IFRS and non-IFRS pre-tax profit growth benefited from prior year negative impacts of EUR 0.1 billion each from a change in case law affecting SAP's other tax litigation, and from a workforce transformation, which were both recorded in the third quarter of 2025. While the operating profit strength this quarter was a result of the factors I mentioned above, it is important to remember that investments to accelerate our AI transformation and to further enhance our products are in full swing. We are managing the business and associated costs with a disciplined approach, aware that this is a long-term endeavor, and we expect to see these ongoing investments continue in the near term. The IFRS effective tax rate was 24.4%, and the non-IFRS effective tax rate was 25.8%. Free cash flow in Q3 was robust at EUR 1.7 billion.

Dominik Asam

Finally, IFRS earnings per share increased by 14% to EUR 1.96, and non-IFRS earnings per share increased by 19% to EUR 1.89. Now, on to our outlook. As disclosed in the quarterly statement issued earlier today, we now expect to lend towards the upper end of our previously guided range for 2026 cloud and cloud and software revenue, while reaffirming our previous guidance for current cloud backlog, operating profit, and free cash flow. Finally, we continue to believe that we are well-positioned to accelerate total revenue growth in 2027. While we are committed to this goal, I would like to take a moment to provide some additional context to help you better understand our path forward. First, as a reminder, the fourth quarter accounts for around 50% of our annual bookings volume.

Dominik Asam

Given the continued political and macroeconomic uncertainty we face today, this could weigh on Q4 bookings and, as a result, our 2027 trajectory. Second, as we mentioned in the first quarter of this year, and as you can see in the 5% decline, we want to leverage services more intentionally to promote the adoption of our AI solutions and build critical mass. This strategy has served SAP well to date, and as we are seeing positive return on investment, we will continue to double down on delivering even stronger adoption support to our cloud and AI customers, which will likely put more downward pressure on billable hours and services revenue also next year. In fact, we believe that in knowledge work industries, business models which solely rely on selling more hours to customers will be more and more challenged by AI.

Dominik Asam

Enable lower cost, more scalable, and nevertheless higher margin alternatives. So further portfolio adaptation in services is a necessity. Lastly, as mentioned earlier, Q3 was another strong quarter, as evidenced by growth across top-line parameters. As a result, we expect to trend towards the upper end of our cloud and software revenue outlook, which will raise the bar against we will measure our 2027 revenue acceleration. Taken together, we are still planning for total revenue growth to accelerate in 2027, but must be cognizant of all the factors that make this trajectory more challenging. To close, SAP was once again able to navigate a choppy environment, executing on its strategy and driving commercial success. The second half of 2026 is off to a strong start, and we continue to make progress against the operating plan we set at the beginning of the year.

Dominik Asam

While we have been able to maintain steady momentum year to date, we will put our full focus on the decisive fourth quarter bookings required to maintain our growth acceleration against now even more challenging comparables in 2027. Thank you, and we will now be happy to take your questions.

Alexandra Steiger

All right. We now take your questions. As always, I would kindly remind you to only ask one question when prompted. Operator, please open the line.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we will begin the question-and-answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star followed by one on their touch-tone telephone. If you are using speaker equipment today, please lift the handset before making your selections. Again, anyone who has a question may press star followed by one at this time. We will take our first question from the line of Adam Wood with Morgan Stanley.

Adam Wood

Hi, thanks very much for taking the question, and congratulations on that very strong third quarter. Maybe if I could just ask on the CCP guide, Dominik, I think you still guided to that slight decel and changed the language around the macro expectations. I think you have said before that slight decel was 2%, which would imply 23% for the fourth quarter versus we ended Q3 at 26%. Could you just talk a little bit about why you are not willing to be a bit more optimistic here? Is it just an abundance of caution given the sale of the quarter? Is there anything you are seeing in pipelines or in customer decision-making that would give you that greater caution at this point in the year? Thank you.

Dominik Asam

Yeah. Thank you for the question. We had a very robust performance on CCP growth so far this year. Again, there is half of the bookings of the year to be still executed in Q4. If I look at the current macro backdrop, it is not so great. You have seen the oil price going up. Luckily, the conflicts in the Near East have not really resulted in massive disruptions of supply chains, but a huge pressure on pricing of many of the commodities that are relevant for the globe. Think about oil price going up from $60-$110. Interest rates have gone up, and we have all seen long-term correlation analysis that when interest rates reach 5%+, and they have reached that in the U.S. now, these interest rates start to develop teeth.

Dominik Asam

I would say it is probably reasonable to not assume that the macro is super conducive in Q4. Yes, I would not like to be understood that we gave a precise guidance on what exactly slightly means. We just refer to what was implied in the prior guidance. It is a little bit of a range. I would say the upper end of that range might be 24% or so. I do not want to be necessarily saying that there is a point value of 23. There is a certain range and possible outcomes, and let us see how the rest of the quarter shapes out.

Operator

We will take our next question from Toby Ogg with JPMorgan.

Toby Ogg

Yeah. Hi, good evening and thanks for the question. Just on the backlog again. So 26% constant currency, stable versus Q2, and looks to be slightly accelerating on an organic basis. Your guidance has always been for that slight deceleration, and that is unchanged. Is the backlog currently growing faster than your own internal expectations at this point? If it is, could you help us with what products specifically are surprising you on the upside and why that is happening? Thank you.

Christian Klein

Yeah. I can take that. First, as I also already highlighted in my remarks, what a difference again a year can make. We see in every RISE and GROW journey first. Just today, I had a large mining company here in Walldorf at our headquarter, and the first thing what they said is your agents to accelerate the migration and the transformation with RISE are really outstanding. So Joule for Consultants, all our data migration agents, they are up through the roof, and we get very, very good feedback. Also, by the way, by all the partnerships we are closing in that space as well. We have a good partnership with Conduct and many others. Also the SIs are helping us to even disrupt their own business model and accelerate the migration of our SAP customers to the cloud. Second, the business case.

Christian Klein

Every business case is now with AI. I said it again, the majority of our deals are closed with AI. Even more important, the Business Data Cloud, after two years now being in the market, Reltio and Dremio acquisition is spot on. I just come from a two days engineering workshop, and what I have seen there is outstanding. Now in Q1, we will be able to even auto-generate non-SAP data products, put it into the SAP Knowledge Graph, and we can extend the ontology layer almost automated also for non-SAP data. Also Reltio, this AI matching of master data records, be it the customer, the material, the supplier, we are on that, will come very soon. That already creates now a really huge excitement, and BDC is just the foundation. Yeah.

Christian Klein

Customers understand when I have really a messed up data model, also for non-SAP data, I have to work on that. Because we also see with AI adoption, obviously we can adopt AI very fast on the customer side, but it takes longer if you have a messy system. That has nothing to do with our AI or with the technology. It is just the same like with every ERP implementation, you need still a clean core. So with that, the BDC is, I would say, this outstanding business, and it is great. Then last but not least, as we said, we are in Q4 now, it is prime time for all of our new AI capabilities. The excitement inside SAP about Joule Work is fantastic. I love to hear all the feedback from our employees.

Christian Klein

No matter if you are building PowerPoints for finance, for HR, for workforce in sales, creating ends of customer-previewing decks, this is all done now with Joule Work. Again, it is not only about another copilot who creates all of these spreadsheets and PowerPoints automatically. It is also giving you always the data context and the governance about who is allowed to see actually which data, and of course, all the identity and the authorizations also sitting in our underlying system of records. So that actually explains it very well. Probably you heard it, I was also very keen this time to share our line of business wins. Because now we always said the suite wins. But now we can go into every customer and says, "You know what?

Christian Klein

You can build the ontology in pieces with your best of breed landscape, or you can have A2A out of the box with an end-to-end ontology layer coming with the suite. The value proposition for every app in every LOB is also now way easier for us because we can always sell the end-to-end ontology layer which only SAP can provide. When you then say, "Hey, this ontology comes as a service and governed by SAP," this is really huge. Then finally, also with my engineering team, we are fighting hard. It's always good to stay humble. There's of course also things we have to still improve. One thing what is really outstanding in my eyes is that we are really also making sure that we are not uploading any data or process IP of our customers into these large language models.

Christian Klein

Which customer wants to see their own process IP, their own data trained in with these large language models and being available to the public? This is very important. Then last but not least, obviously now in the next months and quarters, we continuously work on the response times of the agents of Joule Work, the accuracy. But all of that together really delivered already a strong quarter, and we see it also reflected in the pipeline. Also what makes me now so confident is also, again, when I see on the product side the situation now compared to 12 months, not everything works out of the box. Again, we have to work on certain things like agent response time accuracy, but it's so much better, and the customers see the value proposition, and that is also now reflected in the numbers.

Operator

Our next question comes from Charlie Brennan with Jefferies.

Charlie Brennan

Great. Thanks very much for taking my question. Actually, just to follow up to your previous answer there, Christian, you talked about needing to continue to improve the agents, both in response times and accuracy. Can you give us a sense of how far away you are today from where you want to be? Is that a matter of months to close, or is it a longer body of work than that? I guess related to AI, I'm getting partners beginning to feel the push towards AI credit as a business model. Dominik, can you shed some light into whether that's influencing some of the metrics in the P&L yet, and the dynamics between perhaps what you can book as CCB and what ends up in revenue? Thank you.

Christian Klein

Happy to take the first question, Charlie. Look, probably on accuracy, we will never be done. Transformation is always also a mindset change. When product managers come to me and show me in our daily agent review, "Oh, I have an accuracy of 95%," I said, "Oh, no. You raised the bar on your test cases." We want to then solve even more complex problems. That is what SAP is known for. We continuously work on accuracy. Again, when I look at the new harness, when I look at the Knowledge Graph, when I see how we are training those models, this is again, a big difference also compared to 12 months ago. But of course, there's always work what we have to do. Response time is also something. We are tracing every query down to the data layer, to the ontology layer.

Christian Klein

We are tracing how respondent, how good are the APIs? Do we need to extend the ontology when agents are going into the loop? Again, this is also a mindset change. This is really so different compared to what we did in software development, but we are making good progress. I see everyone is so energized to move into that and build the best agents for the industry. There's always work to do. But we are making great progress now.

Dominik Asam

Maybe, Charlie, on the question of the credits and whether there's any impact visible, I would say, first of all, it's very important to note that whenever we give credits to a customer, we basically amortize these so they're kind of spread over the life of the contract. That means that you don't have to worry about some cliffs or anything happening on that front. If your question more referred to this more consumption-based approach, which we want to gradually ramp into the mix, that is a very gradual process. I'd say in the near term, this kind of logic, how to bring CCP down to cloud revenues is still quite intact. Yes, it will loosen over time as we are going into more and more hybrid models all the way to full consumption based, as we want to sell outcomes to customers as opposed to tokens.

Dominik Asam

For outcomes, it needs consumption and adoption, which also means that all our incentives are gravitating towards more adoption. That is not something you should be concerned about in the bridge to 2027. This will be still quite traditional, I'd say. By the way, it was also good to see that maybe our famous transactional business, which has been lingering along for a long time, has now bottomed out a little bit, and we have actually seen a pretty nice growth year-on-year in that bucket.

Operator

We will move to our next question from Jackson Ader with KeyBanc Capital Markets.

Jackson Ader

Hey. Thanks for taking our questions, guys. The one that I had was on regions. EMEA and APAC growing again in cloud revenue, growing again ahead of the Americas. I am curious, as AI becomes more of a part of the customer decision-making, do you think that some of the other regions, the Americas, could start to catch up to EMEA and APAC in terms of their cloud revenue growth? As AI might be being adopted faster in one region versus others? Thank you.

Christian Klein

No. When I look at the regional performance both on AI and data, the regions really perform equally strong. Yes, there is one quarter where you might see an outlier. I would say when you look at it over the last four quarters, there is really great consistency. Also, especially in North America, I would even say the customers are really oftentimes the front runner for AI. We are in many AI projects, especially on industry AI, where we are now co-developing with customers, very open from a regulation perspective anyway, more easier than when I compare this to all the regulations we find in Europe. So I would say no, it is actually U.S. being the front runner and EMEA and APJ in the meantime following really well. So there is really also a great consistency in the performance across all regions.

Dominik Asam

But given they are the front runner, they are also much more penetrated on cloud already. So that, I think is the main factor.

Christian Klein

Yes.

Operator

Our next question comes from Mark Moerdler with Bernstein Research.

Mark Moerdler

Thank you very much for taking my question and congratulations on the solid quarter and the numbers and the details. Dominik, you have been talking about current cloud backlog. Maybe you want to focus on the way you are thinking about a guiding to the Q4 and the total revenue you have given us numbers for FY 2026. FY 2025 grew at 11% constant currency. First nine months has grown faster than that. Is it just simply there is just so much that the close obviously helps CCB, but a lot of what closes in Q4 is really not going to necessarily generate revenue in Q4? What are the factors that are going into the bridge between the nine months and the full year 2026 revenue guide?

Dominik Asam

You are absolutely right that our visibility for Q4, in cloud revenue terms, which is of course the key driver of total revenues, is quite high at this stage. This is why we now say it is towards the high end of the range, and then you can back solve the implied cloud revenue growth, and you will find it is around 23% given. So that is no magic. You might wonder why is it actually 23% given that we jump off a pretty healthy 25% in Q3. There are a couple of reasons I want to call out, and some I have already mentioned in my introductory remarks. I want to recall that Q3 last year we had EUR 1.2 billion of true factors that weighed on cloud revenue in that quarter, so it makes the comps easier.

Dominik Asam

Secondly, there is still a little bit of a kind of quote-unquote decel effect by the fact that SmartRecruiters was actually embarked in our P&L 11th of September last year, so we have a tiny kind of Q3 contribution. So there is still some good growth from M&A, so to speak, in Q3 of 2026, which the comps will be out. So we will lose that kind of edge. But it is, I would say, half a percentage point or so. Then last but not least, do not forget that we have seen a decel in the CCP growth from Q3 last year when it was 27% in Q3 to 25% in Q4. So it is quite natural that we see a little of a dampening effect. But you are right, there should not be any massive surprises on cloud revenues anymore.

Dominik Asam

There's always some customer stories where some customers might recover from a certain situation or go in a certain situation which is adverse to revenues. This noise is always normal. Otherwise, it's a quite clear line of sight for Q4 on the cloud revenue side, say now. The other items, licenses always notoriously difficult to predict, so don't nail me on that one. But it's getting smaller and smaller. Then we mentioned that we had minus 5% constant currency decline in services. So it's the EUR 1 billion runabouts run rate per quarter. That's another factor that will be there probably because we really have good experience now and think that this conversion of billable hours into adoption and support of customers is paying off handsomely because it's quite straightforward.

Dominik Asam

You get a meager margin on an hour you sell, but if you can convert that into recurring high-margin AI data business, we feel there's more value to be had from that.

Operator

We'll take our next question from Michael Briest with UBS.

Michael Briest

Thank you. Congratulations. For Dominik, I think you need to do about EUR 2 billion in Q4. Obviously, I know there's lots of things that are occurring. Can you give confidence in that? I know tailwinds is becoming less of a wind than it has been for the last couple of years. Are you starting to see from the migration credits being, if you like, utilized by customers? Thanks.

Dominik Asam

Yeah. Indeed, we always pointed out to the fact that migration credits at some point in time will affect our free cash flow, but not to a degree that I feel nervous about the full year guidance of EUR 10 billion. Yes, the remain to do you mentioned is there, but I think we have opportunities, and I am relatively confident that this is something we can manage. To be honest, on Q3, you see a little bit of a, for my taste, a high accounts receivable. So I think we have to tighten the screws on our collections a little bit more. Maybe the higher interest rates create some incentives here for customers to be a little slower sometimes if they find a good excuse.

Dominik Asam

We are now all over this and collecting money to make sure that we are harvesting, not only sending out invoices, but also getting the money back into the shop.

Operator

We will take our next question from Johannes Schaller with Deutsche Bank.

Johannes Schaller

Yeah, thanks for taking my question. Christian, you talked a little bit about how you are not overly relying on a single AI model out there, and then also you made some decent investments in model routing tools, routing the right task to the right, most efficient model. In the light of the gross margin for the business, we obviously have some headwinds at the moment, but this model routing could become quite a nice source of potential cost savings that you can either pass on to your customers or maybe keep some of that in your margins. Just how should we think about that conceptually going forward?

Christian Klein

Yeah, absolutely right. Johannes, we are also now checking every agent use case we are shipping also on what is the best model, and not only from a performance, from an outcome perspective, but also from a price perspective. We are just at the beginning. We are switching the models now more often, and we see also that we have an increasing share of open weight models. By the way, not only for what we ship to our customers, but also what we do internally. The second part is, when you look into the cost margin, as I also said in the last earnings call, yes, this year we have some one-timers. We are investing in software and cloud. We of course have higher hardware prices now. We are not super invested in the infra business, but still.

Christian Klein

Next year, what we are also working on is, of course, on a huge AI automation initiative across the delivery life cycle of our cloud operations, be it on the deployment side, be it on the monitoring, on the incident management, the whole application management. We are working heavily on further automation opportunities so that we are also able to cut some of our third-party contractors we deploy in our cloud delivery. We remain confident that we also see in the upcoming years a healthy development of our cloud cost margins, including switching off the models, and being agnostic is in my eyes a big plus, as we also said before.

Operator

Our next question comes from Ben Castillo with BNP Paribas.

Ben Castillo

Good evening, and thanks for taking my question. Christian, there are two more recent debates forming. The firstly around software potentially going more headless, so accessing data and insights from a plugin versus retaining that AI UX. Secondly, perhaps as you mentioned earlier, a divergence between those staying AI model agnostic, kind of giving choice, and those partnering more exclusively. It is an open question. Just curious on your thoughts and what gives you confidence you have the right strategy, and is that being validated with your customer discussions that that is aligned to how they want to deploy their own AI roadmap? Thank you.

Operator

Please stand by. Pardon the interruption, everyone. Please stand by while we reestablish our audio. Please resume.

Christian Klein

Okay. Sorry for the disruption. As I said before, it is very important that what I mentioned is that we are, of course, also now using AI to train the models and further work on the accuracy and the outcomes of the agent. That is what we are continuously now doing. With that, we see also then, of course, also further optimization of the price-outcome ratio. Again, we are working there, and we see very, very good progress quarter-over-quarter.

Operator

Our next question comes from Frederic Boulan with Bank of America. Frederic, your line is open.

Frederic Boulan

Yeah. Thank you for taking the question. If I can come back to the question around the margin side, can you talk a bit more about the moving parts on margins this year and next? We have gross margins down. You seem pretty confident about the ability to return to growth, but it would be good to have a bit more detail on the rest of the model in terms of operating leverage and ability to keep on expanding margins next year.

Christian Klein

Yeah. We are working on an all-in-one AI program internally at SAP, and I mentioned it. In R&D, obviously, we see huge productivity gains, not only applying AI code generation tools, we are also applying AI for testing, and then for the whole delivery life cycle. That is why, as I said before, I am also really optimistic on cloud delivery and our cost margins, because again, we will switch models to always optimize for the best price outcome. But also then, for all the manual activities we are doing today in really delivering, onboarding the agents and the systems, but also the whole application management of our operations. We will see huge efficiency gains also next year. We will also adjust our third-party contracts also during the course of the next 12 months. If you look at sales, Joule Work is fantastic.

Christian Klein

When you go to a customer, the customer previewing with all the details, with all the business data of the customer pipeline, adoption data, the tickets, everything is there. That helps the salespeople a lot. The whole account planning is done via Joule Work. If we move on to finance, we are just doing the financial planning for the year. Also there, we use our Tableau AI. We use a lot also Joule Work there to do the simulations, to do the reporting. Including HR now with TechWolf, it is all about skill transformation. So HR business partners are using Joule Work heavily to analyze skills, to check, okay, where to recruit, who to offer which training. So also there, we are confident.

Christian Klein

As I also said, we are confident to really also gain up to EUR 3 billion efficiency gains over the course of the next two years. We will continuously update you on the progress, but we are very confident that on all cost items in our P&L, you are going to see the impact of AI.

Dominik Asam

Yeah. I just want to make sure that these are all extremely powerful levers. I think Christian has also mentioned we have the sovereign cloud still. We have some reselling business which is expanding fast, the BDC structures. We are going to embark quite some acquisitions, which is not so much a topic on gross margin, but more a topic on operating margin, which are going to be absorbed. So we will need all these levers to really make sure that the gross margin, the cloud gross margin is stable, and we can sustain that. But the overall model is of course intact. We are firmly committed to containing the growth in operating expenses, total operating expenses, including cost of goods sold to the 80%-90% growth of the top line.

Dominik Asam

We have always been very careful to not be too specific on any one of the line items. I think it serves us well because there are all these puts and takes happening every quarter, and we want to be really flexible to steer the business to make sure we maximize the economics here. Do not forget, we want to really drive the absolute amount of money we harvest from these opportunities as opposed to focusing purely on the margin side.

Operator

Our next question comes from Kirk Materne with Evercore ISI.

Kirk Materne

Yeah. Thanks very much for taking the question. Dominik, I just wanted to follow up on something you said earlier about the transactional business. I realize it is very small for you all, but it seemed like you mentioned that it was stabilizing. I was just wondering, do you see that continuing to stabilize? Can that be a little bit more of a tailwind for you all as you go into 2027? I realize it can fluctuate, but it is good news that it is obviously stabilizing. I am wondering how you are thinking about it going forward. Thanks.

Dominik Asam

Tailwind is a strong word because it might imply that it is higher than the group average cloud growth, which is definitely not. It is far below that. But you recall it was kind of hovering around zero, even slightly negative, and now we are back to some positive territory, which is just reducing the headwind as opposed to being a tailwind.

Operator

We'll move to the next question from Richard Nguyen with Bernstein. Richard, your line is now open. Hearing no response, we'll move on to our next question from Patrick Walravens with Citizens.

Patrick Walravens

Oh, great. Thank you very much. I really appreciate it. Christian, this is maybe a little bit on the smaller side of the business opportunity, but I'm wondering what you think about the travel and expense side of the business, where Concur has been so dominant for so long, but now you're seeing some new competitors growing faster.

Christian Klein

Yeah, absolutely. Concur is a sizable business for us, and I would say, God thanks, we are more on the expense side, so travel to expense, with a lot of regulations. Customers have Concur in the meantime, extremely deeply integrated to our finance solutions. It's a very, very stable business. Obviously, a very minor part is on the booking side, and there are, of course, a lot of new incumbents in the market. But this is not the main part of Concur's business. We are also seeing there with our agents, we are developing already great adoption. I would even say from all of the lines of business solution, we see even the highest adoptions on the Concur side. We are very happy with this business. Again, this is predominantly focused on the expense to pay. That is very important.

Christian Klein

The travel to record is intact. Also there, we will announce new partnerships with some credit card providers, with some airlines. Also there is a huge interest in the ecosystem. The business is intact and very healthy.

Operator

Our next question comes from Balajee Tirupati with Citi.

Balajee Tirupati

Hi. Good evening, and thank you for taking my questions. Would it be possible to share color on constituents within your backlog growth? As the ECC maintenance deadline is approaching, is it getting more skewed towards migration or AI and BDC actually growing share from very small base?

Christian Klein

Yeah. No, as I said, what we are seeing is in every RISE journey now to the cloud, customers use these RISE journeys more and more to really do a business transformation. While two to three years ago, it was more about greenfield process redesign, process automation. Now it is also, of course, a huge lever to also completely reinvent how business processes run with AI. Plus, as I said, in every RISE journey, customers are not only moving to S/4 on our line of business solutions, but they are really also making use of our BDC platform to really also build a harmonized data layer, both SAP and non-SAP. So we are seeing that the RISE contracts overall, they are getting richer. There are more solutions embedded. First AI on the process layer underneath our SAP Business AI Platform with BDC.

Christian Klein

Customers are using all kinds of AI migration tools now to also then accelerate the journey. So overall, you see RISE definitely became richer from a scope perspective with AI, with BDC. We also see it, by the way, in the Q4 pipe, which again, looks strong. It is actually also there, you see the consistency on that every RISE deal we are leading with AI and the data layer is always part of it.

Alexandra Steiger

Great. With that, thank you, Christian. Thank you, Dominik. This concludes our call for today. Thank you for joining and apologies again for the disruption.

Christian Klein

Thank you.

Dominik Asam

Thank you. Bye-bye.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is now concluded, and you may disconnect your telephone. Thank you for joining, and have a pleasant day. Goodbye.

Related articleQuarter not tagged2026-10-20

IBM and SAP Report Earnings: ‘Deferral, Not Destruction’ Meets SAP’s Cloud Backlog Test

24/7 Wall St.
- IBM missed Q2 EPS by $0.04 and fell 19% YTD; Wednesday's report must show deferred capex deals converted to real revenue. - SAP's AI now appears in over 90% of its 50 largest deals, with cloud backlog growing 26% last quarter and analysts expecting 31% EPS growth. - Strong results from both companies Wednesday would validate Jim Cramer's call that Q3 marks the moment software bounced back. - Just released. Our analysts combed the entire stock market and named the ten best stocks to buy right now, and SAP didn't make the cut. Enter your email to see the names that beat SAP. The report is free. Enter your email and see if any of your stocks made the cut. IBM (NYSE:IBM) and SAP (NYSE:SAP) are set to release third-quarter results on Wednesday, October 21. Jim Cramer said on October 1 that this quarter would be remembered "as the moment when software bounced back." These two reports will test that claim. Second-quarter EPS of $2.93 missed the $2.97 consensus and ended a five-quarter beat run. Revenue rose just 1.1%. IBM faulted large capex deals, meaning big hardware buys that clients delayed. In a July 30 Mad Money interview, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said about 40% of them had closed within three to four weeks, calling it "a good signal that it is a deferral, not a destruction." Skeptics remain, however. An investor on CNBC's Halftime Report said on October 6 that he sold after management "lowered their guide," citing software sales growth of only 5%, flat consulting revenue, and a 7% infrastructure fall. Cramer supported the stock on August 24: "I think it's doing better than people think. ... I know that people hate this stock, even though I don't think they should." Shares trade at $236.39, down 18.9% year to date. ------ Free Report, Just Released Why Didn't SAP Make The Top 10 List? 24/7 Wall St has helped investors make money for over two decades, and our top analysts just finished ranking the definitive Top 10 Stocks To Buy Now. Not the ten biggest companies. Not the ten everyone is arguing about. The ten best stocks to buy right now. And SAP didn't make the cut! The report is free, and you can see why we think each stock is a top investment today. Enter Your Email and See the Ten → ------ Watch for three things: whether the delayed deals closed, whether recurring software growth approaches the 10% second-half rate management promised, and whether the ful…Read full document

- IBM missed Q2 EPS by $0.04 and fell 19% YTD; Wednesday's report must show deferred capex deals converted to real revenue. - SAP's AI now appears in over 90% of its 50 largest deals, with cloud backlog growing 26% last quarter and analysts expecting 31% EPS growth. - Strong results from both companies Wednesday would validate Jim Cramer's call that Q3 marks the moment software bounced back. - Just released. Our analysts combed the entire stock market and named the ten best stocks to buy right now, and SAP didn't make the cut. Enter your email to see the names that beat SAP. The report is free. Enter your email and see if any of your stocks made the cut. IBM (NYSE:IBM) and SAP (NYSE:SAP) are set to release third-quarter results on Wednesday, October 21. Jim Cramer said on October 1 that this quarter would be remembered "as the moment when software bounced back." These two reports will test that claim. Second-quarter EPS of $2.93 missed the $2.97 consensus and ended a five-quarter beat run. Revenue rose just 1.1%. IBM faulted large capex deals, meaning big hardware buys that clients delayed. In a July 30 Mad Money interview, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said about 40% of them had closed within three to four weeks, calling it "a good signal that it is a deferral, not a destruction." Skeptics remain, however. An investor on CNBC's Halftime Report said on October 6 that he sold after management "lowered their guide," citing software sales growth of only 5%, flat consulting revenue, and a 7% infrastructure fall. Cramer supported the stock on August 24: "I think it's doing better than people think. ... I know that people hate this stock, even though I don't think they should." Shares trade at $236.39, down 18.9% year to date. ------ Free Report, Just Released Why Didn't SAP Make The Top 10 List? 24/7 Wall St has helped investors make money for over two decades, and our top analysts just finished ranking the definitive Top 10 Stocks To Buy Now. Not the ten biggest companies. Not the ten everyone is arguing about. The ten best stocks to buy right now. And SAP didn't make the cut! The report is free, and you can see why we think each stock is a top investment today. Enter Your Email and See the Ten → ------ Watch for three things: whether the delayed deals closed, whether recurring software growth approaches the 10% second-half rate management promised, and whether the full-year revenue growth outlook of 4% to 5% holds. IBM hosts its call at 5:00 p.m. ET, according to its announcement. Quantum computing remains the longer-term story. IBM said it expects quantum to have a measurable impact on its top and bottom lines in 2028 or 2029. The cloud backlog consists of cloud contracts that customers have signed but that SAP has not yet recognized as revenue. Investors treat it as an early look at future sales. In February, CEO Christian Klein said total cloud backlog grew 30% at constant currencies to a record €77.3 billion ($88.6 billion). SAP Business AI appeared in two-thirds of fourth-quarter cloud order entries. In April, he reported current cloud backlog growth of 25% and cloud revenue growth of 27% at constant currencies. Current cloud backlog then grew 26% in the second quarter. Even so, management still expects "a slight deceleration" this year. The key question is whether that growth rate holds and whether AI is still winning deals. AI and Business Data Cloud appeared in more than 90% of SAP's 50 largest second-quarter deals. Shares have risen 8.0% over the past month. Details are on SAP's investor events page. Metric | IBM | IBM YoY | SAP | SAP YoY Q3 EPS | $2.872 | 8.4% | $2.0862 | 31.2% Q3 Revenue | $16.84B | 3.1% | $10.09B | 11.2% FY26 EPS | $12.3114 | 6.2% | $8.1539 | 15.7% FY26 Revenue | $70.38B | 4.2% | $40.27B | −4.5% SAP's figures are converted from euros to dollars, so currency fluctuations may distort its year-over-year comparisons. IBM must show that the delayed deals turned into revenue and that its second-half growth acceleration is on track. SAP must show current cloud backlog growth holding near its second-quarter rate of 26%, with Business AI still supporting its largest deals. Strong results from both would back up Cramer's software rebound call. If you have cash sitting in your account right now, give this two minutes. After more than two decades of helping investors beat the market, our top analysts at 24/7 Wall St. put together a definitive report on the Top 10 Stocks To Buy Today. And SAP wasn't one of them. They combed the entire market. It's not 10 ideas, not 10 stocks everyone is talking about, it's what their research points to as the 10 best stocks to buy right now, and it's free. Read more here and see which stocks made the list -->> Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.

Related articleQuarter not tagged2026-10-13

Years of Proven Results Drive Continued Partnership Between Pyung Hwa Holdings and Rimini Street

Business Wire
Leading Korean automotive parts manufacturer achieves 50% annual maintenance savings, improved service responsiveness and long-term stability for its highly customized SAP and Oracle environments LAS VEGAS, October 13, 2026--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Rimini Street, Inc. (Nasdaq: RMNI), the Software Support and Agentic AI ERP Company™ and the leading third-party support provider for Oracle, SAP and VMware software, today announced continued success in its long-standing relationship with Pyung Hwa Holdings, a leading Korean automotive parts holding company. Through years of support for the company's SAP ECC 6 and Oracle Database environments, Rimini Street has helped Pyung Hwa Holdings, a supplier to major domestic automotive manufacturers and global OEM supply chains, cut annual maintenance costs by 50%, improve service responsiveness and avoid the cost, disruption and risk associated with unnecessary upgrades. Today, Pyung Hwa Holdings continues to rely on Rimini Support™ for its highly customized SAP and Oracle environments, citing improved operational efficiency, cost optimization and long-term IT flexibility as key outcomes of the partnership. "The first three years with Rimini Street have proven to be one of the best decisions made to support our objective of improving profitability and freeing up our talent for higher-value initiatives," said Sangwook Lee, director, head of information strategy, Pyung Hwa Holdings. "The quality of service, the value of the trusted partnership and our confidence in the long-term stability of our mission-critical SAP and Oracle Database environments are why we selected Rimini Street for another five years." Dependable, Quality Support for SAP and Oracle Database with One Trusted Partner Pyung Hwa Holdings runs a highly customized SAP ECC 6 platform across production planning, materials management, finance, controlling and human resources, with Oracle Database serving as the underlying data infrastructure. The environment supports centralized management across 17 subsidiaries, including 12 domestic and five overseas affiliates, making system stability, responsive support and Korea-specific expertise essential to daily operations. Before Rimini Street, Pyung Hwa Holdings faced high annual maintenance fees and inconsistent support value. The company needed faster issue resolution, deeper expertise for its customized SAP and Oracle en…Read full document

Leading Korean automotive parts manufacturer achieves 50% annual maintenance savings, improved service responsiveness and long-term stability for its highly customized SAP and Oracle environments LAS VEGAS, October 13, 2026--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Rimini Street, Inc. (Nasdaq: RMNI), the Software Support and Agentic AI ERP Company™ and the leading third-party support provider for Oracle, SAP and VMware software, today announced continued success in its long-standing relationship with Pyung Hwa Holdings, a leading Korean automotive parts holding company. Through years of support for the company's SAP ECC 6 and Oracle Database environments, Rimini Street has helped Pyung Hwa Holdings, a supplier to major domestic automotive manufacturers and global OEM supply chains, cut annual maintenance costs by 50%, improve service responsiveness and avoid the cost, disruption and risk associated with unnecessary upgrades. Today, Pyung Hwa Holdings continues to rely on Rimini Support™ for its highly customized SAP and Oracle environments, citing improved operational efficiency, cost optimization and long-term IT flexibility as key outcomes of the partnership. "The first three years with Rimini Street have proven to be one of the best decisions made to support our objective of improving profitability and freeing up our talent for higher-value initiatives," said Sangwook Lee, director, head of information strategy, Pyung Hwa Holdings. "The quality of service, the value of the trusted partnership and our confidence in the long-term stability of our mission-critical SAP and Oracle Database environments are why we selected Rimini Street for another five years." Dependable, Quality Support for SAP and Oracle Database with One Trusted Partner Pyung Hwa Holdings runs a highly customized SAP ECC 6 platform across production planning, materials management, finance, controlling and human resources, with Oracle Database serving as the underlying data infrastructure. The environment supports centralized management across 17 subsidiaries, including 12 domestic and five overseas affiliates, making system stability, responsive support and Korea-specific expertise essential to daily operations. Before Rimini Street, Pyung Hwa Holdings faced high annual maintenance fees and inconsistent support value. The company needed faster issue resolution, deeper expertise for its customized SAP and Oracle environments and practical guidance for Korea-specific requirements, including year-end HR tax settlement processing. After validating the third-party software support model through discussions with existing Rimini Street clients in Korea, Pyung Hwa Holdings moved forward with Rimini Street and gained more responsive service, lower maintenance costs and greater flexibility to direct IT talent and budget toward transformation priorities. With Rimini Street, Pyung Hwa Holdings continues to run stable, highly customized SAP and Oracle systems on its own business-led timeline, without being pulled into a vendor-mandated upgrade or migration path. The company can extend the life and value of its current enterprise systems while preserving capital, IT resources and operational focus for higher-value initiatives. "Rimini Street helped us break free from vendor pressure to upgrade and establish IT strategies aligned with our business requirements and operational environments," said Lee. Savings and Stability Create Opportunities for Growth By reducing maintenance costs and increasing operational flexibility, Pyung Hwa Holdings has been able to redirect resources toward smart manufacturing, advanced data analytics and AI-driven quality management. Looking ahead, the company plans to gradually introduce capabilities such as AI-based predictive maintenance, digital twins and production optimization, while expanding R&D investments in hydrogen fuel cell and electric vehicle components. "Pyung Hwa Holdings' experience demonstrates the value organizations can achieve when they have a technology partner focused on delivering measurable, meaningful business outcomes for their clients," said Hyungwook "Kevin" Kim, GVP and regional general manager, Korea, Rimini Street. "For years, we've provided Pyung Hwa Holdings the responsive support, deep expertise and stability needed to help maximize the value of their SAP and Oracle investments. We are proud of the trust we have earned and the strong relationship we can continue to build together." "Our relationship with Rimini Street has consistently delivered measurable value through responsive support, system stability and significant cost savings," said Lee. "With a partner that understands our environment and business priorities, our team can stay focused on initiatives that drive long-term business success." Learn more about how Pyung Hwa Holdings is funding innovation with Rimini Support™. About Rimini Street, Inc. Rimini Street, Inc. (Nasdaq: RMNI), a Russell 2000® Company, is a proven, trusted global provider of end-to-end, mission-critical enterprise software support, managed services and innovative Agentic AI ERP solutions, and is the leading third-party support provider for Oracle, SAP and VMware software. The Company has signed thousands of IT service contracts with Fortune Global 100, Fortune 500, midmarket, public sector and government organizations who have leveraged the Rimini Smart Path™ methodology to achieve better operational outcomes, billions of US dollars in savings and fund AI and other innovation. To learn more, please visit www.riministreet.com, and connect with Rimini Street on X, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements included in this communication are not historical facts but are forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements generally are accompanied by words such as "anticipate," "assume," "believe," "budget," "continue," "could," "currently," "estimate," "expect," "forecast," "future," "intend," "may," "might," "outlook," "plan," "possible," "goal," "potential," "predict," "project," "reflect," "results," "seem," "seek," "should," "will," "would" and other similar words, phrases or expressions. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding our expectations of future events, future opportunities, global expansion and other growth initiatives and our investments in such initiatives. These statements are based on various assumptions and on the current expectations of management and are not predictions of actual performance, nor are these statements of historical facts. These statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties regarding Rimini Street's business, and actual results may differ materially. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to our ability to attract new clients or retain and/or sell additional products or services to existing clients; our ability to achieve and maintain an adequate rate of revenue growth; cost of revenue, including changes in costs associated with our efforts to grow and the results of any efforts to manage costs to align with current revenue expectations and the expansion of our offerings; the effects of increased intense competition in our industry and our ability to compete effectively; our ability to successfully educate the market regarding the advantages of our support and managed services for ERP software and to sell the products and services comprising our "Rimini Smart Path™" solutions portfolio, including but not limited to our Agentic AI ERP solutions; our intentions with respect to our pricing model and expectations of client savings relative to use of other providers; the evolution of the ERP software management and support landscape facing our clients and prospects; estimates of our total addressable market; the effects of seasonal trends on our results of operations, including the contract renewal cycles for vendor-supplied software support and managed services; the effects of the efforts of enterprise software vendors to sell upgrades or migrations to cloud-based versions of their enterprise software on our results of operations; our ability to scale our operations quickly enough to meet our clients' changing needs or decrease our costs adequately in response to changing client demand; risks arising from incorporating artificial intelligence ("AI") technologies into our products or services or any deficiencies associated with AI technologies used by us or by our third-party vendors and service providers; our ability to maintain, protect, and enhance our brand; the loss of one or more members of our management team and our ability to attract and retain additional qualified technical, sales and marketing personnel; our ability to expand our marketing and sales capabilities; our ability to avoid interruptions to, or degraded performance of, our services and the impact of any such interruptions or performance problems on our operations; our ability to defend against cybersecurity threats and to comply with data protection and privacy regulations; our expectations regarding new product offerings, innovation solutions, partnerships and alliance programs and our ability to develop and maintain strategic partnerships; our ability to expand internationally and the risks associated with global operations; our wind down of support services for Oracle's PeopleSoft software products and the impact on future period revenue and costs incurred related to these efforts; the continuing impact of and our ability to comply with the terms of our July 2025 settlement agreement with Oracle; the impact of macro-economic trends, including inflation and changes in foreign exchange rates, as well as general financial, economic, regulatory and political conditions affecting the industry in which we operate and the industries in which our clients operate; our ability to generate significant capital through our operations or to raise additional capital necessary to fund and expand our operations and invest in new services and products; our business plan and our ability to effectively secure and manage our growth and associated investments; risks relating to retention rates, including our ability to accurately predict retention rates; our ability to protect our intellectual property; our ability to maintain an effective system of internal control over financial reporting; changes in laws or regulations, including tax laws or unfavorable outcomes of tax positions we take; tariff costs; our ability to realize benefits from our net operating losses; any negative impact of environmental, social and governance ("ESG") matters on our reputation or business and the exposure of our business to additional costs or risks from our reporting on such matters; our credit facility's ongoing debt service obligations and financial and operational covenants on our business and related interest rate risk; the sufficiency of our cash and cash equivalents to meet our liquidity requirements; the volatility of our stock price; the amount and timing of repurchases, if any, under our stock repurchase program and our ability to enhance stockholder value through such program; our ability to maintain our good standing with the United States and international governments and capture new contracts with public sector entities; the occurrence of catastrophic events that may disrupt our business or that of our current and prospective clients; future acquisitions of, or investments in, complementary companies, products, subscriptions or technologies; and those discussed under the heading "Risk Factors" in Rimini Street's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed on July 30, 2026, and as updated from time to time by Rimini Street's future Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, and other filings by Rimini Street with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition, forward-looking statements provide Rimini Street's expectations, plans or forecasts of future events and views as of the date of this communication. Rimini Street anticipates that subsequent events and developments will cause Rimini Street's assessments to change. However, while Rimini Street may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, Rimini Street specifically disclaims any obligation to do so, except as required by law. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing Rimini Street's assessments as of any date subsequent to the date of this communication. © 2026 Rimini Street, Inc. All rights reserved. "Rimini Street" is a registered trademark of Rimini Street, Inc. in the United States and other countries, and Rimini Street, the Rimini Street logo, and combinations thereof, and other marks marked by TM are trademarks of Rimini Street, Inc. All other trademarks remain the property of their respective owners, and unless otherwise specified, Rimini Street claims no affiliation, endorsement, or association with any such trademark holder or other companies referenced herein. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261013917596/en/ Contacts Janet Ravin VP, Corporate Marketing Rimini Street, Inc. +1 702 285-3532 [email protected]

Related articleQuarter not tagged2026-10-13

SAP SE (SAP) Rebounded Strongly Following Strong Q2 Results

Insider Monkey
Lindsell Train Ltd, an investment management company, has released its "Lindsell Train Global Equity Fund" third-quarter 2026 investor letter. The letter can be downloaded here. To drive long-term capital growth, the LT Global Equity Fund maintains a concentrated portfolio of developed-market global equities. The Fund fell 1.4% in Q3 2026, trailing the MSCI World Index (+1.8%). Positive gains in July and August driven by strong investee earnings were offset by a September pullback as rising bond yields pressured valuations. Despite a polarized, tech-dominated market, management remains optimistic about long-term returns given compelling valuations and ongoing portfolio growth. Also, check the strategy's top five holdings to see its best picks in 2026. In its Q3 2026 investor letter, Lindsell Train Global Equity Fund highlighted SAP SE (NYSE:SAP). Headquartered in Walldorf, Germany, SAP SE (NYSE:SAP) is a leading enterprise application and business solutions provider. On October 12, 2026, SAP SE (NYSE:SAP) closed at $217.85, with a $253.68 billion market capitalization. SAP SE (NYSE:SAP) posted a ~8.96% YTD pullback, trading within a 52-week range of $144.97 to $281.37. Lindsell Train Global Equity Fund stated the following regarding SAP SE (NYSE:SAP) in its Q3 2026 investor letter: "A quick mention must also go to SAP SE (NYSE:SAP), one of the Fund's most recent additions, which has regained some of its lost ground by rising 39% over the quarter – again helped by a strong set of Q2 results. The holding in the Fund is now 2.5%, with the bulk bought at lower prices in May and June, following the indiscriminate sell-off in software earlier in the year." SAP SE (NYSE:SAP) is not on our list of 40 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds Heading Into 2026. According to our database, 35 hedge fund portfolios held SAP SE (NYSE:SAP) at the end of the second quarter, compared to 33 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of SAP SE (NYSE:SAP) as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock. In an earlier article, we examined how SAP SE (NYSE:SAP) aims to leverage AI to deepen its enterprise moat wh…Read full document

Lindsell Train Ltd, an investment management company, has released its "Lindsell Train Global Equity Fund" third-quarter 2026 investor letter. The letter can be downloaded here. To drive long-term capital growth, the LT Global Equity Fund maintains a concentrated portfolio of developed-market global equities. The Fund fell 1.4% in Q3 2026, trailing the MSCI World Index (+1.8%). Positive gains in July and August driven by strong investee earnings were offset by a September pullback as rising bond yields pressured valuations. Despite a polarized, tech-dominated market, management remains optimistic about long-term returns given compelling valuations and ongoing portfolio growth. Also, check the strategy's top five holdings to see its best picks in 2026. In its Q3 2026 investor letter, Lindsell Train Global Equity Fund highlighted SAP SE (NYSE:SAP). Headquartered in Walldorf, Germany, SAP SE (NYSE:SAP) is a leading enterprise application and business solutions provider. On October 12, 2026, SAP SE (NYSE:SAP) closed at $217.85, with a $253.68 billion market capitalization. SAP SE (NYSE:SAP) posted a ~8.96% YTD pullback, trading within a 52-week range of $144.97 to $281.37. Lindsell Train Global Equity Fund stated the following regarding SAP SE (NYSE:SAP) in its Q3 2026 investor letter: "A quick mention must also go to SAP SE (NYSE:SAP), one of the Fund's most recent additions, which has regained some of its lost ground by rising 39% over the quarter – again helped by a strong set of Q2 results. The holding in the Fund is now 2.5%, with the bulk bought at lower prices in May and June, following the indiscriminate sell-off in software earlier in the year." SAP SE (NYSE:SAP) is not on our list of 40 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds Heading Into 2026. According to our database, 35 hedge fund portfolios held SAP SE (NYSE:SAP) at the end of the second quarter, compared to 33 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of SAP SE (NYSE:SAP) as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock. In an earlier article, we examined how SAP SE (NYSE:SAP) aims to leverage AI to deepen its enterprise moat while maintaining strict margin discipline. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q3 2026 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors. READ NEXT: 33 Stocks That Should Double in 3 Years and 15 Stocks That Will Make You Rich in 10 Years. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.

Related articleQuarter not tagged2026-09-07

Workday's Q2 Beat and AI Gains Raise the Stakes for Fiscal 2028 Growth

Zacks
Workday, Inc. WDAY combined second-quarter earnings beat with faster AI adoption and a higher margin outlook. Attention now turns to whether those trends can support fiscal 2028 growth.The central issue is monetization. Core subscription growth is expected to moderate, making Workday's ability to convert expanding AI usage into incremental annual recurring revenues increasingly important. Second-quarter revenues rose 12.8% year over year to $2.65 billion, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.63 billion by 0.6%. Non-GAAP earnings of $2.75 per share topped the consensus mark of $2.62 by 5%.Subscription revenues increased 13.9% to $2.47 billion and accounted for about 93% of total revenues. Roughly 60% of subscription revenue growth came from expansion among existing customers. Workday, Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Workday, Inc. Quote AI products generated more than $100 million of new annual contract value in the quarter, representing more than 25% of total new annual contract value. Agentic AI annual recurring revenues approached $600 million, rising more than 200% year over year.Adoption is spreading across several offerings. More than 200 customers had signed up for Flex Credits, while 170 customers had purchased Adaptive Decision Intelligence. More than half of net new wins included one or more AI solutions. Workday raised its fiscal 2027 non-GAAP operating margin outlook to 31%. Management maintained operating cash flow guidance of $3.45 billion and expects free cash flow of $3.18 billion for the year.Workday continues to prioritize investment in its agentic AI roadmap and platform opportunity while driving operating efficiencies. That combination keeps the focus on whether AI spending can scale without sacrificing the margin trajectory. Management currently targets about 11% subscription revenue growth in fiscal 2028, consistent with the expected growth rate in the second half of fiscal 2027. Workday also expects non-GAAP operating margin to expand by at least two percentage points.Potential upside could come from Sana Enterprise, Workday Extend with Data Cloud and AI agents, which are seeing strong early demand. Management is prioritizing adoption before full monetization and expects AI to become a more significant contributor to incremental annual recurring revenues from fiscal 2028 and beyond. Total costs and expenses increased 11%…Read full document

Workday, Inc. WDAY combined second-quarter earnings beat with faster AI adoption and a higher margin outlook. Attention now turns to whether those trends can support fiscal 2028 growth.The central issue is monetization. Core subscription growth is expected to moderate, making Workday's ability to convert expanding AI usage into incremental annual recurring revenues increasingly important. Second-quarter revenues rose 12.8% year over year to $2.65 billion, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.63 billion by 0.6%. Non-GAAP earnings of $2.75 per share topped the consensus mark of $2.62 by 5%.Subscription revenues increased 13.9% to $2.47 billion and accounted for about 93% of total revenues. Roughly 60% of subscription revenue growth came from expansion among existing customers. Workday, Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Workday, Inc. Quote AI products generated more than $100 million of new annual contract value in the quarter, representing more than 25% of total new annual contract value. Agentic AI annual recurring revenues approached $600 million, rising more than 200% year over year.Adoption is spreading across several offerings. More than 200 customers had signed up for Flex Credits, while 170 customers had purchased Adaptive Decision Intelligence. More than half of net new wins included one or more AI solutions. Workday raised its fiscal 2027 non-GAAP operating margin outlook to 31%. Management maintained operating cash flow guidance of $3.45 billion and expects free cash flow of $3.18 billion for the year.Workday continues to prioritize investment in its agentic AI roadmap and platform opportunity while driving operating efficiencies. That combination keeps the focus on whether AI spending can scale without sacrificing the margin trajectory. Management currently targets about 11% subscription revenue growth in fiscal 2028, consistent with the expected growth rate in the second half of fiscal 2027. Workday also expects non-GAAP operating margin to expand by at least two percentage points.Potential upside could come from Sana Enterprise, Workday Extend with Data Cloud and AI agents, which are seeing strong early demand. Management is prioritizing adoption before full monetization and expects AI to become a more significant contributor to incremental annual recurring revenues from fiscal 2028 and beyond. Total costs and expenses increased 11% year over year to $2.34 billion in the second quarter. The increase included $126 million of higher employee-related costs and $32 million of additional third-party hosted infrastructure spending.Oracle Corporation ORCL lists AI agents across Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM functions such as benefits, compensation and employee self-service. SAP SE SAP has expanded suite-wide agentic AI across SAP SuccessFactors, including recruiting, payroll, learning and talent development. Workday has also cited greater deal scrutiny and longer sales cycles in some markets. The fiscal 2028 setup is improving, but AI adoption still needs to translate into durable incremental revenues as core subscription growth moderates. Cost discipline and sales execution remain important to how much of the opportunity reaches reported results.WDAY currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), supporting a measured near-term stance. Its Growth Score of A is favorable for investors focused on growth characteristics. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. The Value Score of D, Momentum Score of F and VGM Score of C make the broader quantitative profile less supportive. Since Zacks Style Scores complement the Zacks Rank, the mix indicates stronger growth characteristics than value and momentum attributes at present. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Workday, Inc. (WDAY) : Free Stock Analysis Report SAP SE (SAP) : Free Stock Analysis Report Oracle Corporation (ORCL) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

Related articleQuarter not tagged2026-08-27

Why Is Commvault (CVLT) Up 11.6% Since Last Earnings Report?

Zacks
It has been about a month since the last earnings report for Commvault Systems (CVLT). Shares have added about 11.6% in that time frame, outperforming the S&P 500. Will the recent positive trend continue leading up to its next earnings release, or is Commvault due for a pullback? Well, first let's take a quick look at the latest earnings report in order to get a better handle on the recent catalysts for CommVault Systems, Inc. before we dive into how investors and analysts have reacted as of late. Commvault reported first-quarter fiscal 2027 non-GAAP earnings of $1.42 per share, up 40.6% year over year. The figure beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.18 by 20.3%. Revenues advanced 11.4% to $314.13 million and surpassed the consensus mark by 0.99%. Results benefited from strong SaaS demand, subscription growth and improving profitability. Subscription annual recurring revenues (ARR) increased 22% to $1.05 billion. Subscription revenues increased 16% year over year to $267.03 million and accounted for 85% of total revenues, up from 81% in the prior-year quarter. Term-based license revenues rose 1% to $110.42 million, while term-based support revenues climbed 18% to $56.06 million. SaaS revenues surged 39% to $100.55 million, crossing the $100 million quarterly threshold for the first time. Perpetual license revenues increased 19% to $8.70 million. However, perpetual support revenues declined 19% to $25.48 million, while other services revenues fell 7% to $12.93 million. Subscription ARR reached $1.05 billion, up from $867.31 million a year earlier. CVLT added $39 million in net new subscription ARR during the quarter, driven by continued strength in its SaaS offerings. SaaS ARR grew 38% to $424.34 million from $306.87 million. The company surpassed 10,000 active SaaS customers, while subscription net dollar retention remained steady at 114%. Identity resilience and data security offerings represented more than one-third of net new subscription ARR. Emerging SaaS offerings, including Clumio S3 Protection, Google Workspace and Azure DevOps, also recorded strong growth. The percentage of Commvault-managed SaaS customers using at least two products increased to 49% from 42% a year earlier. This reflected continued upselling and cross-selling across the Commvault Cloud Platform. Management highlighted identity resilience as an important entry point for broader p…Read full document

It has been about a month since the last earnings report for Commvault Systems (CVLT). Shares have added about 11.6% in that time frame, outperforming the S&P 500. Will the recent positive trend continue leading up to its next earnings release, or is Commvault due for a pullback? Well, first let's take a quick look at the latest earnings report in order to get a better handle on the recent catalysts for CommVault Systems, Inc. before we dive into how investors and analysts have reacted as of late. Commvault reported first-quarter fiscal 2027 non-GAAP earnings of $1.42 per share, up 40.6% year over year. The figure beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.18 by 20.3%. Revenues advanced 11.4% to $314.13 million and surpassed the consensus mark by 0.99%. Results benefited from strong SaaS demand, subscription growth and improving profitability. Subscription annual recurring revenues (ARR) increased 22% to $1.05 billion. Subscription revenues increased 16% year over year to $267.03 million and accounted for 85% of total revenues, up from 81% in the prior-year quarter. Term-based license revenues rose 1% to $110.42 million, while term-based support revenues climbed 18% to $56.06 million. SaaS revenues surged 39% to $100.55 million, crossing the $100 million quarterly threshold for the first time. Perpetual license revenues increased 19% to $8.70 million. However, perpetual support revenues declined 19% to $25.48 million, while other services revenues fell 7% to $12.93 million. Subscription ARR reached $1.05 billion, up from $867.31 million a year earlier. CVLT added $39 million in net new subscription ARR during the quarter, driven by continued strength in its SaaS offerings. SaaS ARR grew 38% to $424.34 million from $306.87 million. The company surpassed 10,000 active SaaS customers, while subscription net dollar retention remained steady at 114%. Identity resilience and data security offerings represented more than one-third of net new subscription ARR. Emerging SaaS offerings, including Clumio S3 Protection, Google Workspace and Azure DevOps, also recorded strong growth. The percentage of Commvault-managed SaaS customers using at least two products increased to 49% from 42% a year earlier. This reflected continued upselling and cross-selling across the Commvault Cloud Platform. Management highlighted identity resilience as an important entry point for broader platform adoption. Demand was supported by customers seeking to protect identity systems, govern data access and recover operations following cyber incidents. Commvault also expanded its relationship with Microsoft. Its cyber-resilience capabilities are expected to become available as a native independent software vendor service on Microsoft Azure, making the platform easier to integrate into Azure-based workflows. Gross margin reached 82.1% in the reported quarter. SaaS gross margin improved 635 basis points year over year to 70.6%, aided by product optimization, acquisition integration and strategic agreements with hyperscaler partners. Operating expenses increased 7% to $185 million but declined as a percentage of revenues to 59% from 61% a year earlier. Headcount remained roughly flat year over year. Non-GAAP EBIT increased to $71.47 million from $58.25 million. The corresponding margin expanded 210 basis points to 22.8%, marking the company’s strongest quarterly EBIT margin performance in more than a decade. Operating cash flow increased to $51.67 million from $31.68 million in the year-ago quarter. Free cash flow rose 71% to $51.10 million, reflecting stronger collections and continued spending discipline. Commvault ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $929.84 million, up from $899.99 million at the end of fiscal 2026. During the quarter, the company repurchased roughly 98,000 shares for $10 million. Management continues to target share repurchases equal to approximately 60% of annual free cash flow while retaining balance sheet flexibility. For the second quarter of fiscal 2027, subscription revenues are projected between $264 million and $268 million. Total revenues are expected to be approximately $310 million, while the non-GAAP EBIT margin is forecast at about 20%. For fiscal 2027, CVLT raised its subscription revenue outlook to $1.119-$1.129 billion from $1.115-$1.125 billion. Subscription ARR guidance was maintained at $1.20-$1.21 billion, with SaaS ARR expected to exceed $500 million. The company continues to expect total revenues of $1.30-$1.31 billion and free cash flow of $250-$260 million. Non-GAAP EBIT margin guidance was increased by 50 basis points to approximately 21%. In the past month, investors have witnessed a upward trend in estimates review. Currently, Commvault has a great Growth Score of A, though it is lagging a lot on the Momentum Score front with a D. Following the exact same course, the stock has a grade of D on the value side, putting it in the bottom 40% for this investment strategy. Overall, the stock has an aggregate VGM Score of C. If you aren't focused on one strategy, this score is the one you should be interested in. Estimates have been broadly trending upward for the stock, and the magnitude of these revisions looks promising. Interestingly, Commvault has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). We expect an in-line return from the stock in the next few months. Commvault is part of the Zacks Computer - Software industry. Over the past month, SAP (SAP), a stock from the same industry, has gained 13.8%. The company reported its results for the quarter ended June 2026 more than a month ago. SAP reported revenues of $11.48 billion in the last reported quarter, representing a year-over-year change of +12.1%. EPS of $1.85 for the same period compares with $1.70 a year ago. For the current quarter, SAP is expected to post earnings of $2.04 per share, indicating a change of +9.7% from the year-ago quarter. The Zacks Consensus Estimate remained unchanged over the last 30 days. The overall direction and magnitude of estimate revisions translate into a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) for SAP. Also, the stock has a VGM Score of D. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report CommVault Systems, Inc. (CVLT) : Free Stock Analysis Report SAP SE (SAP) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

As of 2026-10-24 • Updated weeklySource: Earnings sourceIngestion runbook