​SAP raises full year outlook on S/4HANA growth

SAP has reported its Q3 2017 earnings and raised its full year outlook again despite slower growth in new cloud bookings compared to last quarter.

SAP says it now expects full year revenues in between €23.4 billion to €23.8 billion, up €100 million on the previous estimate and last year's €22.07 billion full year revenues.

It's now forecasting full year profits to be in the range of €6.85 billion to €7.0 billion compared to last year's €6.63 billion result. This raises its previous lower end by €500m.

SAP's core non-IFRS operating profits were up 4 percent in the third quarter to €1.64 billion at constant currencies.

New cloud bookings with SAP grew 14 percent in the quarter to €302 million, which was slower than last quarter's 33 percent growth and €340 million in revenues.

However, overall cloud subscription and support revenue grew 27 percent at constant currencies to €938 million, slightly less than the 29 percent analysts had expected, according to Reuters.

The company's total revenue for the quarter was €5.59 billion, up 8 percent year on year factoring in currency movements, again slightly below analyst expectations.

As SAP continues its transition from on-premise licensing to cloud subscriptions, it's tracking predictable revenues, which include the total of cloud subscriptions-and-support revenue and software support revenue. This now accounts for 65 percent of total revenues, up 1 percent on last quarter.

SAP's traditional software licenses and support revenues were up 4 percent in the quarter to €3.72 billion.

SAP said its S/4 HANA customers now number 6,900 up 70 percent on the same period last year. In the third quarter it signed up 600 additional customers, 40 percent of which were net new.

"Led by S/4HANA, we are delivering intelligent business applications built on the most data rich architecture ever created," said SAP CEO Bill McDermott.