Can SAP Business Data Cloud Become Its Next Major Growth Engine?

SAP SE’s SAP Business Data Cloud is emerging as an important pillar of the company’s AI strategy as enterprises look to bring together business data and provide AI agents with the context required to automate processes. The solution featured prominently in the second quarter, with AI and SAP Business Data Cloud serving as key pillars in more than 90% of SAP’s 50 largest deals. This strong adoption gives management confidence about business momentum in the second half of the year. SAP’s current cloud backlog increased 26%, while cloud revenues grew 24% to €6.3 billion in the quarter.

SAP Business Data Cloud forms the data foundation of the context and reason pillar of SAP’s new Business AI platform. It provides agents with broad access to enterprise data. SAP is strengthening this foundation through Dremio, whose Apache Iceberg-native technology allows mission-critical SAP and non-SAP data to be analyzed together in real time without first moving or copying the information.

SAP is also building a single semantic data layer that combines data products around customer, supplier, material and other master-data objects. Reltio will govern these models end to end to support high data quality, while the semantic models connect with SAP’s ontology layer and knowledge graph across lines of business and industries. Prior Labs adds tabular AI capabilities designed to help agents generate accurate predictions. The strategy could also create monetization opportunities as SAP expands agentic AI. SAP intends to keep Prior Labs’ technology open source but monetize its capabilities through value-priced agents rather than selling the model separately.

Management believes these agents can use SAP and non-SAP data to deliver predictions without requiring customers to curate data or manage data pipelines.
Meanwhile, SAP’s broader cloud transformation should support adoption. Its new RISE with SAP and GROW with SAP offering was well received in the second quarter, with strong uptake of the AI ERP migration toolchain. Customers are achieving faster time to value and up to 30% lower ERP migration costs. Stronger data integration, governance, AI capabilities and cloud migration momentum position Business Data Cloud as a key component of SAP’s push toward the autonomous enterprise.

Taking a Look at SAP’s Competitors

Salesforce, Inc. CRM is extending its CRM franchise by embedding Agentforce across Customer 360 and deepening the data layer through Informatica, which is supporting subscription growth and backlog. Usage indicators, including rising tokens processed and agentic work delivered, suggest customers are moving beyond early pilots. The company expects revenue growth to pick up in the second half of fiscal 2027 as Sales, Service, Slack, Agentforce and Data 360 adoption broadens. Salesforce is returning amounts of capital through an accelerated share repurchase while still generating cash flow to fund product investment.

Oracle Corporation’s ORCL cloud infrastructure business demonstrates accelerating revenue growth, supported by strategic partnerships and competitive pricing that attract enterprise workload migrations. AI-optimized database capabilities provide technological differentiation, while record fiscal 2026 operating cash flow of $32 billion enables sustained infrastructure investments. The integrated solutions strategy strengthens customer retention and drives cross-selling opportunities. For first-quarter fiscal 2027, total revenues are expected to grow from 27% to 29% in both constant currency and USD. Total Cloud revenues are expected to grow 57-63% in constant currency and 58-64% in USD. For fiscal 2027, the company confirmed prior revenue guidance of $90 billion.

SAP’s Price Performance, Valuation & Estimates

Shares of SAP have gained 11.7% in the past six months, underperforming the Zacks Computer and Technology sector’s appreciation of 18.7%.

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From a valuation standpoint, SAP stock is currently trading at a trailing 12-month Price/Earnings ratio of 28.53X, which is higher than the Zacks Computer - Software industry average of 26.83X.

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The Zacks Consensus Estimate for SAP’s 2026 earnings is pegged at $8.13, which suggests 16.81% growth over the figure reported in 2025.

SAP currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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