SAP Stays the Course on Buybacks While Building Out Its AI Stack

SAP repurchased 590,000 more shares on Xetra in late September, bringing its buyback total to 8,895,886, as CEO Klein pushes AI agents.

SAP's capital-return program rolled on through late September, with the Walldorf software giant picking up another 590,000 of its own shares on Xetra between September 21 and September 25, 2026. The ninth interim disclosure tied to the current buyback brought the cumulative total repurchased under the program to 8,895,886 shares. Trading on September 24 accounted for the bulk of the week's activity, when 550,000 shares changed hands in a single session.

Management's aim is straightforward: return surplus cash to shareholders and lift earnings per share. Yet the stock's recent trajectory has been less cooperative. SAP closed Friday at EUR 184.70, down 1.4% on the day, and the shares sit 12% lower since the start of the year. Even so, the price remains 11% above its 200-day moving average — a technical marker that many chart-focused investors read as a sign the broader uptrend is still intact.

AI Agents as the Next Growth Chapter

While the buyback ticks along, CEO Christian Klein is staking the company's future on artificial intelligence. Speaking to dpa, Klein described AI products as a historic growth opportunity for the software maker, with the goal of embedding so-called AI agents deep into customers' core business processes, data structures and operational controls. He also acknowledged that productivity gains from the technology will likely bring further changes to the workforce.

SAP has already put product muscle behind that strategy. At its own Transformation Excellence Summit, the company rolled out functional extensions for SAP Signavio, SAP LeanIX, WalkMe and SAP Cloud ALM. It also added the TabPFN-3.5 Plus model to its SAP AI Core platform, giving business customers expanded analytical capabilities directly inside their operational systems. Demand for such transformation work is tangible — Bernmobil, the Swiss transit operator, is modernizing its process landscape with cloud solutions and an architecture designed to support future AI applications.

Deepening Ties With Nvidia and NetApp

On the partnership front, SAP moved to broaden its technological foundation. Storage specialist NetApp said Wednesday it is exploring a deeper cloud-native integration of its functions into SAP Cloud Infrastructure, though the effort remains in the planning stage. Earlier in the week, SAP strengthened its collaboration with Nvidia, folding the chipmaker's OpenShell technology into its own AI platform. SAP developers are working directly on the OpenShell codebase, but the joint project is still under development and is not yet available to customers as a finished product.

Industry recognition followed. Research firm IDC positioned SAP as a leading provider in its MarketScape for agentic marketing in B2C enterprises.

Analyst Support and the October 21 Print

Wall Street has lent its backing to the story. Roughly a week ago, Jefferies reaffirmed its "Buy" rating with a price target of EUR 220.00, while both Jefferies and Citi raised their targets and reiterated their buy recommendations — a move that lifted the shares at the time.

Attention now turns to the next scheduled milestone: SAP will publish third-quarter 2026 results on October 21, with the report due at 22:05 CET, followed by an analyst and investor call at 23:00 CET. That interim update will be the first real test of how strongly the new software offerings and cloud demand are feeding through to revenue and operating profit.