By Mauro Orru
German business-software group SAP claimed the top spot as Europe's largest company by market value, dethroning Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk.
SAP shares in Frankfurt rose more than 0.5% on Monday, lifting the group's market value to 312.9 billion euros ($338.60 billion). Meanwhile, Novo Nordisk shares in Copenhagen shed more than 2.5%, taking the company's market value to nearly 2.31 trillion Danish kroner ($334.89 billion).
SAP's ascent comes as Chief Executive Christian Klein doubles down on his strategy to move away from software-licenses sales in favor of subscription-based cloud services, banking on a more profitable and predictable model based on recurring revenue.
The group in January lifted its operating profit and sales guidance for the year as it expects strong growth at its core cloud business to accelerate, aided by the appeal of artificial intelligence.
SAP stock is up more than 40% over the past 12 months, contributing to growth in Germany's DAX index, which is up more than 26%. In contrast, Novo Nordisk shares fell more than 42% in the past year as the company faced a number of setbacks with developmental weight-loss drug CagriSema.
Earlier this month, Novo Nordisk released fresh trial results for CagriSema that disappointed investors, sending shares down more than 8% on March 10. Weight-loss data from a CagriSema trial wiped nearly $100 billion off the company's market value in December.
Write to Mauro Orru at mauro.orru@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 24, 2025 06:44 ET (10:44 GMT)
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