Between the Lines

Larry Dignan, Andrew Nusca and Rachel King

Salesforce.com earnings: First quarter on target, but outlook light

By | May 20, 2010, 1:50pm PDT

Summary: Salesforce.com’s first quarter earnings were in line with Wall Street expectations, but the earnings outlook for the current quarter and fiscal year looked light.

Salesforce.com’s first quarter earnings were in line with Wall Street expectations, but the earnings outlook for the current quarter looked light.

Salesforce.com on Thursday reported net income of 13 cents a share on revenue of $376.8 million, up 24 percent from a year ago. The company said non-GAAP earnings were 30 cents a share (statement). Wall Street was expecting earnings of 30 cents a share on revenue of $368 million.

As for the outlook, Salesforce.com projected second quarter revenue between $381 million and $383 million. Earnings will be 7 cents a share to 8 cents a share. Non-GAAP earnings will be between 26 cents a share and 27 cents a share and that includes a 3 cents a share hit for the just-closed Jigsaw acquisition. In any case, the guidance range appears to be a bit light. Wall Street was expecting earnings of 31 cents a share on revenue of $375.4 million.

Also see: VMware, Salesforce announce VMforce platform, bring Java to cloud

The company also said that it “anticipates closing two small technology-related asset acquisitions in the second quarter.” Those purchases will lower fiscal 2011 GAAP earnings by 3 cents an non-GAAP earnings by 2 cents a share. For 2011, Salesforce is projecting revenue between $1.54 billion and $1.55 billion. GAAP earnings will be between 38 cents a share and 40 cents a share. Non-GAAP earnings will be $1.13 a share to $1.15 a share. Wall Street was expecting annual earnings of $1.28 a share on revenue of $1.53 billion.

By the numbers:

  • Salesforce added 4,800 net new customers and ended the first quarter with 77,300 customers.
  • The company ended the quarter with $1.9 billion in cash and equivalents.
  • Deferred revenue as of April 30 was $665 million, up 21 percent from a year ago.

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Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic.

Disclosure

Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan has nothing to disclose. He doesn’t hold investments in the technology companies he covers.

Biography

Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic. He was most recently Executive Editor of News and Blogs at ZDNet. Prior to that he was executive news editor at eWeek and news editor at Baseline. He also served as the East Coast news editor and finance editor at CNET News.com. Larry has covered the technology and financial services industry since 1995, publishing articles in WallStreetWeek.com, Inter@ctive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning magazine. He's a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism and the University of Delaware.

For daily updates, follow Larry on Twitter.

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RE: Salesforce.com earnings: First quarter on target, but outlook light
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RE: Salesforce.com earnings: First quarter on target, but outlook light
jackson1984-24316069205748857739440257893812 11th Oct
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