Scalper1 News
While SAP ( SAP ) late Friday preannounced Q1 earnings and revenue that missed Wall Street views, investors Monday were buoyed by the German enterprise software company’s assurances that its pipeline is flowing strongly into Q2. SAP stock was up a fraction, near 77, in afternoon trading in the stock market today, just 7% off an 18-month high of 82.70 set July 25. In its release Friday, SAP CEO Bill McDermott said he expects “increasing momentum” in 2016. Shares of rival Salesforce.com ( CRM ) were down a fraction Monday afternoon, but rival Oracle ( ORCL ) was up a fraction. With final Q1 results scheduled for release April 20 before the open, SAP issued preliminary earnings of 0.64 euros per share minus items (73 cents at Monday’s exchange rate), up 9%, where Wall Street analysts expected 0.70 euros. It said revenue rose 5% to 4.73 billion euros (or $5.39 billion), short of the 4.85 billion euros and 4.82 billion euros that Evercore ISI and Wall Street projected, respectively, observed Evercore ISI in a research note. One euro was worth about $1.14 Monday. In a research note Sunday, Evercorse ISI analyst Kirk Materne said he’s looking for “more color” from SAP on April 20, but “we expect the (Q1) license shortfall and comments around a slower start in the Americas are going to pressure shares on Monday despite SAP reiterating its full-year guidance and the comments around a ‘strong (Q2) pipeline.’ ” Materne maintained a buy rating on SAP stock, but said “we continue to favor Oracle ( ORCL ) and Microsoft ( MSFT ) in mega-cap software.” RBC Capital Markets analyst Ross MacMillan maintained a sector perform rating on SAP stock but lowered his price target to 78 from 81. MacMillan noted that SAP’s Q1 cloud bookings of 140 million euros rose 22% year over year, and more than 25% in constant currency. “We view this as slightly disappointing” following Q4’s 75% “organic growth,” less than 50% in constant currency, “although do note that (Q1) is a seasonally weak quarter,” MacMillan said. “SAP also added over 500 new S4HANA customers, of which around 30% (i.e. about 150) are net new. While well below about 1,400 customer adds in (Q4), we would expect (Q1) to be seasonally weaker.” He said weakness in the energy sector and “some pull forward of demand” in Q4 due to S4HANA product promotions drove SAP’s softness in Q1. “As a result, we think there is limited read-through for other companies in enterprise software.” Got that, Salesforce.com sellers? “SAP’s fundamental growth drivers are rock solid, from our best-in-class S4HANA applications to our completeness of vision in the cloud,” said SAP’s McDermott in Friday’s release. “We expect increasing momentum as the year progresses, fully consistent with our guidance for the full year. SAP continues to be a highly profitable growth company.” HANA is SAP’s linchpin business software suite. CFO Luka Mucic said the Americas, dragged by Brazil, “got off to a slower start.” Scalper1 News
Scalper1 News