Israel's Nice Q3 profit tops estimates, cloud revenue jumps

JERUSALEM, Nov 12 (Reuters) - Israeli enterprise software provider Nice reported on Thursday a higher-than-expected third quarter jump in profit and sales, boosted by record growth in its cloud revenue.

Nice said it earned $1.41 per diluted share excluding one-time items in the third quarter, compared with $1.30 a year earlier. Revenue grew 7% to $412 million, with half of it coming from cloud revenue that was up 35% to $204 million.

Nice was forecast to post adjusted EPS of $1.39 on revenue of $408 million, according to I/B/E/S Refinitiv.

CEO Barak Eilam said that cloud growth was being driven by "new customers, rapid adoption by large enterprises, new verticals that are embracing remote service and digital transformation that has become front and center for organizations of all sizes."

Nice estimated 2020 revenues of $1.645 billion to $1.655 billion, with non-GAAP full-year diluted earnings per share of $5.63 to $5.73. (Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch Editing by Steven Scheer)