SAP Q1 Preliminary Operating Profit Up 28%; Reiterates 2016 Outlook

(RTTNews) - SAP (SAP) reported that its preliminary IFRS operating profit for the first quarter ended March 31, 2016 increased 28% to 0.81 billion euros from 0.64 billion euros in the prior year.

"SAP's fundamental growth drivers are rock solid - from our best-in-class S/4HANA applications to our completeness of vision in the cloud," said Bill McDermott, CEO of SAP. "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."

"The first quarter is our seasonally smallest quarter. While EMEA and APJ showed solid execution, the Americas got off to a slower start. We successfully transformed our business in 2015, contributing to the strong rise in earnings per share," said Luka Mucic, CFO of SAP. "With a robust pipeline across our entire portfolio we are on track to achieve our full year outlook."

Non-IFRS operating profit was 1.10 billion euros, an increase of 5% from the prior year's 1.06 billion euros, while it was up 4% at constant currencies.

IFRS basic earnings per share was 0.48 euros, an increase of 37% from 0.35 euros in the previous year. Non-IFRS basic earnings per share improved 9% to 0.64 euros from 0.58 euros in the prior year.

IFRS software licenses and support revenue was 3.17 billion euros, an increase of 1% from the previous year.

IFRS cloud and software revenue was 3.85 billion euros, up 5% from 3.65 billion euros in the prior year.

IFRS total revenue was 4.73 billion euros, an increase of 5% from 4.50 billion euros in the prior year. Non-IFRS total revenue was up 6% at constant currencies.

The company reiterated 2016 outlook. The company expects full year 2016 non-IFRS cloud subscriptions and support revenue to be in a range of 2.95 billion euros - 3.05 billion euros at constant currencies, compared to 2.30 billion euros reported last year. The upper end of this range represents a growth rate of 33% at constant currencies.

The Company expects full year 2016 non-IFRS cloud and software revenue to increase by 6% - 8% at constant currencies, compared to 17.23 billion euros reported in the prior year.

The Company expects full-year 2016 non-IFRS operating profit to be in a range of 6.4 billion euros - 6.7 billion euros at constant currencies, compared to 6.35 billion euros in 2015.

The company noted that it will report its complete first quarter 2016 results on April 20th.