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FRANKFURT/NEW YORK (dpa-AFX) - The shares of software companies SAP and Salesforce continued their record run on Wednesday. The Walldorf-based company's shares were driven by optimistic analyst comments, while the shares of its US competitor benefited from unexpectedly strong quarterly figures and a more confident business outlook.

Analysts Mark Murphy from JPMorgan and Brent Thill from Jefferies, for example, praised Salesforce's profitability in the third quarter. It was better than expected, even if, according to Thill, "the pace of margin growth has slowed somewhat". Murphy also emphasized the good cash development.

SAP was the second-best stock in the DAX, closing up 3.8 percent at 241.70 euros. The company is worth around 297 billion euros (around 312 billion US dollars). This makes SAP the most valuable listed company in Germany. In the USA, Microsoft is the heavyweight among software companies with a value of 3.25 trillion dollars. With a current price gain of 7.9% on the New York Stock Exchange, Salesforce has a market capitalization of around 343 billion dollars.

On the same day, analysts from the Swiss bank UBS and the US bank JPMorgan expressed a positive view of SAP shares. In an outlook for the coming year, Toby Ogg from JPMorgan wrote: Even if - with the exception of SAP and Sage - the shares of European software manufacturers and IT service providers have fallen significantly in the course of 2024 and their valuation now appears more attractive, he is "still most convinced of SAP and Sage".

"SAP and Sage are also the most advanced in the introduction of AI co-pilots," he emphasized. SAP, for example, is currently actively adding new functions to the Group's own Joule platform, an artificial intelligence (AI) assistant. Among other things, this involves the integration of AI agents to help manage complex business processes.

New tools are to be introduced soon to improve data processing and decision-making, which, according to UBS analyst Michael Briest, should help SAP to continue to gain market share. He explained that the announced Knowledge Graph, for example, will help customers to map the interaction of different workflows across various processes.

In view of SAP's continued share price gains, the market also referred to Salesforce. Market expert Andreas Lipkow explained that, on the one hand, demand for SAP shares is increasing due to the general record sentiment on the market as a whole and, on the other hand, the shares are benefiting from the good quarterly figures of industry colleague Salesforce. "The US company's operating business was excellent, so the annual targets were raised." Overall, this also fueled the generally positive sentiment in the technology sector.

Although Sage Group shares fell slightly in London, they had climbed to a record high just two days previously.

Overall, Salesforce shares have gained around 37 percent this year. SAP has risen by more than 73% so far, making it currently the third-largest winner in the leading index. Only Siemens Energy, whose share price has quadrupled, and Rheinmetall, with a price increase of around 125%, have risen more sharply in 2024./ck/tih/jha/edh/