10:32 AM EDT, 08/16/2024 (MT Newswires) -- NICE (NICE) reported solid Q2 results, beating top- and bottom-line estimates driven by "strong cloud revenue growth" amid CXone demand, Wedbush said in a Friday note.

NICE reported Q2 adjusted diluted earnings Thursday of $2.64 per share on revenue of $664.4 million, beating analyst estimates of $2.58 and $663.3 million, respectively.

Wedbush noted that the company's total revenue was driven by cloud revenue, which surged 26% year over year to $468.4 million, accounting for about 73% of the total revenue.

NICE expanded its presence in Japan with the launch of a second CXone cloud region in March and was awarded a $100 million contract to modernize customer services of an undisclosed organization in the Asia-Pacific region in June.

The brokerage views the upcoming CEO transition as manageable despite the departure of Barak Eilam, highlighting new CEO Scott Russell's extensive experience at SAP.

"While Barak's departure is a tough loss, we believe the transition will be relatively seamless at the CEO level," Wedbush said, adding that Russell is a longtime enterprise software sector veteran with over 25 years of experience.

The firm remains confident in NICE's growth potential, noting that its generative AI offerings will continue to drive margin expansion and long-term growth as the company capitalizes on broader cloud adoption and increasing enterprise demand.

Wedbush maintained an outperform rating on NICE's stock with a $250 price target.

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