Stock prices for German business software maker SAP fell by over 6 percent yesterday, following the company’s earnings call that morning. That equals a $4.34 slide to $63.97 on the New York Stock Exchange, and is attributed to investor concerns regarding Q1, 2011 net profit that was far below analysts’ expectations.

SAP reported net profit for the first quarter has climbed 4 percent to €403 million ($596.2 million). Analysts however forecasted a much more significant growth to €515 million, which got a lot of investors concerning about the stock which rose 35 percent since the fiscal year started.

SAP was able to explain of the decline in net profit though, which was reportedly a result of an 85 percent increase in acquisition-related charges among other things:

“SAP blamed higher acquisition-related charges of €76 million and a surge in expenses for stock-based compensation to €37 million from €4 million a year earlier for the meager profit.”

Co-Chief Executive Jim Hagemann Snabe highlighted that “SAP’s strategy of growth through innovation is clearly paying off.” This may not be too far fetched considering that, despite of disappointing net profit, total revenue rose by an impressive 21 percent to €3.02 billion.

SAP changed its forecast for fiscal year 2011, and expects earnings to rise by 10 to 14 percent. It is becoming clear SAP is on a track from (growth even if not from every aspect,) and one of the means the company is leveraging to maintain this pace is a large partner base. Among them is HP, who announced it will be among the first partners to offer SAP-certified cloud services on a global scale.

SAP may have seen its revenue soar, but it’s still lagging behind the competition. Microsoft is one company belonging to that list, and just reported a 31 percent quarterly earnings growth for Q3. The company generated a net income $5.2 billion or 61 cents share between January and May compared to f $4 billion, or 45 cents per share in the previous year.