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Amid buzz over its deal with Amazon Web Services, Salesforce.com ( CRM ) reports fiscal Q1 earnings after the close Wednesday, with profit minus items expected to rise 46% to 23 cents per share and revenue growing 25% to $1.89 billion. Some analysts are cautious after Salesforce’s Q4 beat, thinking some deals might have closed a quarter earlier than expected, lifting Q4 but hurting Q1. “For Q1, we forecast a year-over-year billings increase of 13%,” said Barclay’s analyst Raimo Lenschow in a research report. “While optically low, Salesforce is seeing more renewals shift into Q4, where billings grew 28%, with some of that coming out of Q1.” Salesforce last week said it would offer a new “Internet of Things” service using AWS, the cloud computing business of Amazon.com ( AMZN ). Salesforce’s service, expected to launch this fall, collects data from Web-connected devices. AWS is the No. 1 cloud services provider. Salesforce has an IBD Composite Rating of 95 out of a possible 99, putting it among the top 5% of all stocks in such key metrics as sales and revenue growth. But its Computer-Software Enterprise group ranks just No. 115 out of 197 groups tracked by IBD. Salesforce stock, up a fraction near 77 in early trading in the stock market today , is down 1.5% in 2016, but it’s up nearly 35% since touching a 19-month low in February, during the broad market sell-off. The growth trajectory of the software maker’s Marketing Cloud platform should be one topic on the earnings call. “After a monster Q4, first quarter fiscal 2017 optics will look worse,” said Citigroup analyst Walter Pritchard in a research report. Citigroup “inputs suggest strong business activity for Salesforce in Q1, but in context of (its) strong Q4, which likely pulled in some Q1 business,” wrote Pritchard. “We forecast billings +14% to $1.43 billion, at the high end of guidance.” For the June quarter, analysts polled by Thomson Reuters estimate EPS growth of 30% and sales to rise 21%. Scalper1 News
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