SAP shares turn negative on new cloud business outlook

(Reuters) -Shares in SAP were volatile in early trading on Thursday after Europe's largest software maker forecast full-year cloud revenue at the lower end of its outlook range. SAP said it expected cloud revenue for 2025 to be at the lower end of its forecast of 21.6 billion to 21.9 billion euros ($25.2 billion – $25.5 billion). The stock was down around 2% at 0935 GMT, reversing course after rising as much as 3% earlier and tracking a fall in its U.S.-listed shares. "We did not see an 'Oracle moment', but some fears about a weak report looming did not come true either," a local trader said, referring to Oracle's upbeat view on its cloud infrastructure revenue. Some analysts also saw positives in SAP's comments on demand and flagged stronger than expected cloud backlog rising 27% year-on-year. The cloud backlog growth was especially strong given broader concerns of risks to software players caused by artificial intelligence, JPMorgan wrote in a note. SAP briefly became Europe's largest company by market capitalisation in March, but gave up the European crown later in the year in part due to worries that AI will disrupt the software sector. Up to Wednesday's close it was up 0.2% so far this year, following a 70% rise in 2024. Still, it is now the third biggest company by value in Europe, following the chip gear maker ASML and luxury behemoth LVMH. ($1 = 0.8575 euros) (Reporting by Paolo Laudani in Gdansk, Editing by Anna Pruchnicka)

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