SAP Stock Downgrade Adds to Software Pain. Why the Sector's Losing Its AI Battle.

Dow Jones
Aug 26

The software sector's artificial-intelligence pain is starting to look chronic.

Intuit, Zoom Communications, and Germany's SAP were the latest stocks to join the industry's increasingly crowded sickbed on Wednesday.

Enterprise software giant SAP was downgraded to Neutral from Buy by UBS analysts. The reason? "No imminent AI catalysts."

SAP still has a "deep moat" around its core business, analyst Michael Briest wrote, but "is only delivering agentic AI into customers' hands slowly." He said that was "limiting the monetisation opportunity and increasing the prospect of customers choosing DIY route to adopting AI in the interim."

The company's American depositary receipts were falling more than 2% in early trading, and are down around 13% in 2026.

It wasn't the only casualty in the sector. Zoom stock was also struggling after earnings, falling more than 5% in early trading. The video-calling platform's guidance disappointed the market.

"The evident albatross affecting pre-market stock action is unanticipated slowing Online activity with management now indicating only flat F2027 category revenue," Benchmark analyst Matthew Harrigan wrote, maintaining a Buy rating on the stock.

Intuit was down 2% after the financial software company reported fiscal fourth-quarter results late Tuesday. The shares are down close to 50% so far this year.

The earnings weren't bad, they even managed to beat expectations. But Intuit's revenue outlook was the problem, forecasting growth of between 9% and 10% this year down from 14% last year.

CEO Sasan Goodarzi said the company was shifting its focus toward gaining market share and accelerating customer growth. "I'm resetting expectations for the company because this is the perfect time to do it, where we can play offense," he said on the earnings call.

But it isn't easy playing offense as a software company in the rapidly-changing world of AI developments.

With Salesforce, Okta, and Nutanix reporting after the close, there's still time for more software casualties this earnings season.

 

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