Plenty of good news from SAP (NYSE: SAP) today, as the enterprise software giant said preliminary sales results for the fourth quarter beat its own target in reporting record sales results for the fourth quarter.
Software and services helped drive SAP’s record results, rising 20 percent to $13 billion. The news was greeted well by investors; SAP’s stock jumped 6.25 percent to $54.38 in afternoon trading Thursday. The company is enjoying its strongest sales growth in years.
Bill McDermott, Co-CEO of SAP, said it was the best sales quarter in SAP’s history. The company had “outstanding growth in all regions and customer segments,” he said.
“This result is clear proof that focusing on innovation and customer value is the right strategy,” said SAP’s other CO-CEO, Jim Hagemann Snabe.
SAP said it expects operating income of more than 3.9 billion euros ($1.98 billion) for 2010, a jump in the company’s operating margin to 31.5 percent from 27.4 percent in 2009, when not using international financial reporting standards (IFRS).
The one dark lining to the silver cloud was SAP’s warning that the massive $1.3 billion payout it’s due to make to Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) as a result of losing a high profile copyright infringement case will “have a significant negative impact” on operating profit.
Read eCRM Guide’s report for more insight into SAP’s results.