Nice’s stock surges after profit rises above expectations, as cloud strength leads to record revenue

Shares of Nice Ltd.
NICE,
+0.11%
rallied 5.9% toward a two-month high in premarket trading Thursday, after the Israel-based business software company reported third-quarter earnings that beat expectations and raised the full-year outlook amid strong cloud revenue growth. Net income rose to $92.4 million, or $1.39 a share, from $71.2 million, or $1.07 a share, in the year-ago period. Excluding nonrecurring items, adjusted earnings per share of $2.27 beat the FactSet consensus of $2.15. Revenue grew 8.4% to to a record $601.3 million, above the FactSet consensus of $595.0 million, as cloud revenue jumped 22% to $403.3 million and services revenue fell 3.0% to $160.2 million. For 2023, the company raised its guidance range for adjusted EPS to $8.58 to $8.78 from $8.40 to $8.60. Separately, the company set a new $300 million share repurchase program, which represents 2.6% of Nice’s market capitalization of $11.34 billion at Wednesday’s close. The stock has tumbled 15.3% over the past three months through Wednesday, while the S&P 500
SPX,
+0.16%
has gained 2.2%.