SAP Ticks Higher Following Preliminary Q1 Guidance

Shares of SAP SE (ADR) SAP were trading higher by nearly 1 percent ahead of Monday's market open after the company announced its preliminary first-quarter 2016 results.

SAP said that it expects its Non-IFRS earnings per share to be 0.64 euro on total sales of 4.73 billion euro.

SAP expects to report a 5 percent rise in its cloud and software revenue to 3.85 billion euro. The company added that its SAP S/4HANA momentum continued in the quarter and now exceeds 3,200 clients.

SAP also noted that its second quarter is "off to a strong start" and expects to close several software and cloud deals in early April. In addition, the company sees "high visibility" in its pipeline across all regions.

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"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."

"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."