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FRANKFURT/NEW YORK (dpa-AFX Broker) - As expected, strong growth prospects for Oracle and significant pre-market gains for the US software provider's shares left SAP investors cold on Thursday. The Walldorf-based software manufacturer's shares reacted little to Oracle's figures for the 2024/25 fiscal year and its forecasts.
At midday, SAP shares were down 0.6 percent to 261.55 euros. This was only slightly more stable than the DAX index, which was down 1.1 percent. However, the record high of 283.50 euros reached in February this year remains within reach.
Although Oracle presented mixed figures for the fiscal year ending in May, it now expects strong momentum for future sales. However, the US company is primarily focusing on its cloud infrastructure business (IaaS), a service that provides the entire data center infrastructure, including servers, data storage, and networks. Several analysts responded to the very ambitious growth outlook by significantly raising their price targets.
The already strong share price climbed a further 7.6 percent to around US$190 in pre-market trading. Bank of America, investment firm Jefferies, and Bank UBS, which raised its target price to $225, expect the shares to surpass their current record high of just under $200 in mid-December 2024 in the coming months.
However, since the reason for the Oracle enthusiasm on the market is primarily due to its IaaS business, the spark is not catching on to SAP shares, commented stock market expert Andreas Lipkow. Although the Walldorf-based company is also heavily dependent on the cloud business, the momentum at Oracle in this area is completely different. "In the US, Oracle has taken on an important role in the AI sector, which is why it is able to grow so strongly. This is not transferable to SAP, or only to a very limited extent. The database business has a very strong influence on Oracle's operating business, whereas at SAP it is more the application software."/ck/ag/mis
