Expect limited new evidence for a structural reassessment: European Software & Payments Q2 preview

Research evidence excerpt

Expect limited new evidence for a structural reassessment: European Software & Payments Q2 preview

Equity Research

7 July 2026

European Software & Payments Q2 preview

Expect limited new evidence for a

structural reassessment Initiating Coverage

We see an improving fundamental setup into Q2, but expect European Software & Payments

limited new data points capable of shifting the AI debate. NEUTRAL Unchanged

With positioning still skewed to semis and catalysts scarce, European Software & Payments

Sven Merkt, CFAwe expect earnings prints to matter, though likely not enough

to unlock a meaningful rerating in our sector. +44sven.merkt@barclays.com(0)20 3134 1254

Barclays, UK

What happened last quarter? Our coverage was down 2% in Q2, an underperformance relative Alice Jennings

to the Eurostoxx Tech (+33%) and the overall market (MXWO +13%). Performance was also +44 (0)20 3134 9087

worse than the IGV (+13%), with some pockets of the global software market such as alice.jennings@barclays.com

cybersecurity and infrastructure software recovering. Among the best performing names were Barclays, UK

Hexagon (+6%) and Amadeus (+5%), while SAP (-9%), Capgemini (-12%), and Nemetschek Yaamir Badhe

(-17%) were weak. During the quarter, Accenture lowered its guidance at the high end, with the +44 (0)20 7773 3700

shares falling >15% as a result, and Capgemini also declining ~9%. Salesforce and Workday both yaamir.badhe@barclays.com

delivered solid updates and while Workday was slightly up post results, Salesforce was largely Barclays, UK

unchanged, although the acquisition of Contentful drove a substantial albeit short-lived re- Data Science & Applied AI

rating. Overall, the quarter reinforces our views laid out in our AI framework note (16/3/26), that Vincenzo Pota(iii)