Why salesforce.com Jumped

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of salesforce.com (NYS: CRM) jumped today by as much as 11% after the company reported a strong first quarter.

So what: Revenue jumped 38% to $695 million, with non-GAAP earnings per share of $0.37. CEO Mark Benioff said that last year the company became the first enterprise cloud company to reach $2 billion in revenue and is already eyeing $3 billion next year. Salesforce is raising the high end of its revenue guidance to that $3 billion target.

Now what: Deferred revenue jumped 46% to $1.33 billion, although part of this was simply related to longer invoice durations. Unbilled deferred revenue is also now up to $2.7 billion. Second-quarter sales are expected to be between $724 million and $728 million, with adjusted earnings per share of $0.38 to $0.39. Full-year adjusted earnings should be between $1.60 and $1.63. The strong figures have triggered a slew of analyst upgrades, saying the company beat on just about every metric.

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At the time thisarticle was published Fool contributorEvan Niuholds no position in any company mentioned. Check out hisholdings and a short bio. The Motley Fool owns shares of salesforce.com.Motley Fool newsletter serviceshave recommended buying shares of salesforce.com and creating a bear put spread position in salesforce.com. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. We Fools don't all hold the same opinions, but we all believe thatconsidering a diverse range of insightsmakes us better investors. Try any of our Foolish newsletter servicesfree for 30 days.

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