Tag Archives: crm

Salesforce.com Q1 Beats, Hikes Revenue Outlook, Stock Rises

Salesforce.com ( CRM )  late Wednesday reported Q1 earnings and revenue that topped expectations and raised its full-year revenue guidance, sending the business software provider’s stock up 6% in after-hours trading. Salesforce, the leading provider of customer relationship software, said Q1 profit jumped 50% to 24 cents per share minus items. Revenue in the three months ended April 30 rose 27% to $1.92 billion, the company said.  Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had modeled 23 cents and $1.89 billion. In the current quarter, Saleforce forecast earnings ex items of 24 cents to 25 cents per share, up from 19 cents in the year-ago quarter, and revenue of $2.005 billion to $2.015 billion, up 23%. Analysts had estimated 25 cents and $1.98 billion. Salesforce increased its full-year revenue guidance to $8.2 billion from $8.16 billion, “given the strong response to our Customer Success Platform,” Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said in the earnings release. San Francisco-based Salesforce  garners mainly subscription revenue from on-demand software delivered via the Internet, or cloud. “Salesforce’s  increased penetration of very large organizations and vertical-focused strategy, led by President and COO Keith Block, may mark the beginning of a trend of consistency in enterprise sales execution,” Jefferies analyst John DiFucci said in a pre-earnings research report. Salesforce has a strong IBD Composite Rating of 95, putting it among the top 5% of all stocks on key metrics such as sales and earnings growth. Its Computer Software-Enterprise group, though, ranks just No. 138 out of 197 industry groups tracked by IBD. Salesforce competes with Microsoft ( MSFT ), SAP ( SAP ), Oracle ( ORCL ), ServiceNow ( NOW ) and others. 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.

ServiceNow Growth Roadmap On Collision Course With Salesforce.com?

ServiceNow ( NOW ), at its analyst day Monday, touted its plan to reach $4 billion in revenue by 2020 by expanding into management software for human resources, customer service and security. The company posted sales of $1 billion last year. The push into customer service software likely means more competition with Salesforce.com ( CRM ), analysts say. Cloud software leader Salesforce.com is scheduled to  report earnings after the market close Wednesday. At its analysts day, ServiceNow forecast expanding profit margins. “New this year, management now assumes FCF (free cash flow) margins of 30%-32% by 2020, which is a nice positive in our opinion. Overall we believe ServiceNow has the opportunity to become a multi-product platform, with 30%-plus revenue growth and expanding margins through 2020,” Matthew Hedberg, an RBC Capital analyst, said in a research report Tuesday. The cloud-based software provider’s core business has been information technology service management (ITSM). ServiceNow’s 2015 revenue jumped 47% to reach the $1 billion mark. Its Q1 2016 revenue rose 44% to $306 million. “Management reiterated its goal to reach $4 billion in revenue in 2020, with free cash flow of at least $1.2 billion as FCF margin expands 1% to 3% annually,” Rob Owens, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities, said in a report. “While not giving specific free cash flow guidance for 2017, the company did release a guideline for understanding how the growth and profitability trade-off could play out. ITSM was 70% of bookings in 2015, and management believes it should decrease further toward 50% as we head toward 2020 and new solutions ramp.” ServiceNow stock is down 20% in 2016 despite rising more than 4% on Monday, but shares soared 14% on April 21 after its Q1 earnings and revenue beat expectations . Shares are forming a cup-with-handle base with a buy point of 76.94. Shares fell 1.2% Tuesday, to 69.50. ServiceNow has an IBD Composite Rating of 85 out of a possible 99, putting it among the top 15% of all stocks in key metrics such as sales and earnings growth. “Management reiterated 2020 revenue goal of $4 billion, with ITOM (IT operations management) software driving 15% of revenue and solid contributions from security, customer service, HR, facilities and other non-IT apps,” wrote Citigroup analyst Walter Pritchard in a research report. ServiceNow will continue investing in building up its salesforce, he said. Pritchard estimates ServiceNow will generates near $1 billion in FCF in 2016.

Salesforce Billings In Focus Ahead of Q1, Buzz Over AWS Deal

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%.