SAP Back On Track With Strong Q2 Financial ResultsSAP Back On Track With Strong Q2 Financial Results

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SAP Thursday reported robust results for its second quarter (ending June 30), highlighted by a 19% increase in software revenue and an 8% increase in operating profit over the year-earlier quarter.

Software revenues increased to 1.06 billion euros ($1.29 billion) on the quarter, surpassing the 977 million-euros ($1.19 billion) analyst estimate, according to Bloomberg.

"We delivered double-digit growth in all regions, driven by strong momentum from the core as well as SAP Hana, mobile, and the cloud," said SAP co-CEOs Bill McDermott and Jim Hagemann-Snabe in a joint statement. "The results came in at the upper end of our second quarter software revenue guidance in an uncertain macro-economic environment."

The performance marked a rebound from the first quarter, when SAP fell short of expectations, sparking a change in the presidency at the top of SAP North America.

[ Want more on SAP's latest acquisition? Read SAP Ariba Deal: Not All About Cloud. ]

Second quarter software and software-related service revenue increased 15% over the year-earlier period to 3.14 billion euros ($3.82 billion) in constant currencies. Profits totaled 1.17 billion euros ($1.42 billion) with an operating margin of 30%.

The company said cloud momentum was driven by synergies between SAP and SuccessFactors, the software-as-a-service-based human capital management firm SAP acquired for $3.4 billion. That deal was closed in February. SAP launched a $4.3 billion bid for cloud-based supply chain networking vendor Ariba during the second quarter, but that acquisition isn't expected to close until the third quarter.

SAP rival Oracle beat its estimates for its latest fiscal quarter ended in May with a 6.7 percent gain in license sales. It was a strong quarter, though hardware sales continued to drag down overall financial performance.

SAP's results released on Thursday were preliminary, and its stock was up 2.4% on the Frankfurt exchange after the release. Full results for the second quarter and first half of 2012 will be reported on July 24.

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