Salesforce.com Earnings: Building a Solid Castle in the Cloud
The cloud computing revolution is alive and well. Salesforce.com (CRM) posted better than expected results after Tuesday's market close.
Salesforce.com is considered by many investors as the poster child of the cloud computing revolution. The company offers corporations software that runs on its servers instead of traditional alternatives that are locked to a single PC or a network. This allows Salesforce.com to provide seamless updates at low price points. It also allows companies the ability to access their enterprise software solutions from anywhere that a secure Internet connection is available.
And last night the tech darling pointed out that it's the first enterprise cloud company to surpass an annual revenue run rate of $3 billion.
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The good news doesn't stop there. The tech darling's revenue soared 35 percent to $788 million, as companies continue to flock to Salesforce.com's cost-effective and easily accessible enterprise software solutions. A one-time hit -- as the company took a valuation allowance against deferred tax assets -- resulted in a quarterly loss. But on an adjusted basis the company came through with a profit of $0.33 a share, whereas analysts were only banking on revenue of $776.5 million and adjusted earnings of $0.32 a share.
Salesforce.com's deferred revenue is growing even faster than its reported revenue, suggesting that the next few quarters will be even stronger. Yes, Salesforce.com is bumping its revenue guidance for fiscal 2013 higher as it initiates a rosy outlook calling for at least $3.8 billion in revenue for its next fiscal year.
Other Things Worth Watching
• The market is closed on Thursday in observance of Thanksgiving, and the exchanges close early on Friday. In other words, Wednesday will be the last full trading day until Monday. Invest and trade accordingly.
• Zale (ZLC) isn't shining as brightly as some of its diamond jewelry. The mainstream jeweler may have posted its eighth consecutive quarter of positive same-store sales, but revenue increasing a mere 2 percent to $357.5 million which was less than the $364.7 million that Wall Street was forecasting. It also didn't help that Zale posted a larger deficit than analysts were expecting.
• Another retailer that stumbled after Tuesday's market close was Tilly's (TLYS). The apparel chain sells merchandise from top brands in the surf, skate, motocross, and lifestyle apparel industries. It cranked out a better than expected profit in its first quarter as a public company, but fell short on sales.
Motley Fool contributor Rick Munarriz does not own shares in any of the stocks in this article. The Fool owns shares of and has created a synthetic short position on salesforce.com. Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended buying shares of salesforce.com.
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