What to Look for in Salesforce Earnings

By Chris Lange Updated Jan 12, 5:41PM EST · Published Nov 17, 12:25PM EST

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What to Look for in Salesforce Earnings — © Thinkstock

Salesforce.com Inc. (NYSE: CRM) is set to release its fiscal third-quarter financial results after the markets close on Thursday. The consensus estimates call for $0.21 in earnings per share (EPS) and $2.12 billion in revenue. The same period of last year reportedly had EPS of $0.21 and $1.71 billion in revenue.

Though this top company reported choppy second-quarter numbers, the stock took a hit. Salesforce provides enterprise cloud computing solutions, with a focus on customer relationship management to various businesses and industries worldwide. It offers enterprise cloud computing applications and platform services, including Sales Cloud that enables companies to store data, monitor leads and progress, forecast opportunities, gain insights through relationship intelligence and collaborate around sales on desktop and mobile devices.

The company also provides Service Cloud, which enables companies to deliver personalized customer service and support, as well as connect their service agents with customers on various devices; and Marketing Cloud, which enables companies to plan, personalize and optimize customer interactions.

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Despite the second-quarter earnings and billings miss, the analysts remain positive and Merrill Lynch commented about this recent report:

Our take is seasonality may be shifting heavily towards the fourth quarter after defying size, producing consistent execution for 3 years. The company has recovered from billings misses, raising questions about maturity, execution, competition, with panache in the past.

A few analysts weighed in on Salesforce ahead of the earnings report:

Rosenblatt Securities has a Buy rating with a $90 price target.
Stifel has a Buy rating and a $93 price target.
Merrill Lynch reiterated a Buy rating with a $100 price objective.

Excluding Thursday’s move, Salesforce has underperformed the broad markets, with the stock down 5.4% year to date.

Shares of Salesforce were last seen up over 1% at $74.17 on Thursday, with a consensus analyst price target of $93.40 and a 52-week trading range of $52.60 to $84.48.

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About the Author Chris Lange →

Chris Lange is a writer for 24/7 Wall St., based in Houston. He has covered financial markets over the past decade with an emphasis on healthcare, tech, and IPOs. During this time, he has published thousands of articles with insightful analysis across these complex fields. Currently, Lange's focus is on military and geopolitical topics.

Lange's work has been quoted or mentioned in Forbes, The New York Times, Business Insider, USA Today, MSN, Yahoo, The Verge, Vice, The Intelligencer, Quartz, Nasdaq, The Motley Fool, Fox Business, International Business Times, The Street, Seeking Alpha, Barron’s, Benzinga, and many other major publications.

A graduate of Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, Lange majored in business with a particular focus on investments. He has previous experience in the banking industry and startups.