Salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM) reported better than expected fourth quarter results on Thursday. The enterprise cloud computing company’s non-GAAP earnings came in at 7 cents a share, beating the Wall Street consensus of 6 cents. Salesforce’s revenues jumped 37% YoY to $1.15 billion, slightly above analyst estimates of $1.13 billion. On GAAP basis, the company posted a net loss of 19 cents or $117 million for the quarter ending January 31, 2014. For the full year, Salesforce incurred a loss of $232 million, while revenues surged 33% to $4.07 billion.
Salesforce issues lukewarm current quarter guidance
However, Salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM) shares fell 1.22% to $65.41 in after-hours trading Thursday. That’s mainly because of the company’s lukewarm current quarter and full year guidance. The San Francisco-based company said it expects 9-10 cents in Q1 earnings and 48-50 cents in full year EPS. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were anticipating Q1 EPS of 10 cents and full year earnings of 50 cents.
Deferred revenue, which shows growth in the company’s subscriptions, jumped 35% YoY to $2.5 billion. It was helped by the company’s acquisition of ExactTarget last year. Salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM) raised its revenue guidance for the fiscal 2015, which ends January 31 next year. The company now expects $5.3 billion in full year revenues, up from the previous guidance of $5.2 billion.
Salesforce landing more big-ticket deals
Salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM) CEO Marc Benioff announced during the conference call that the company’s long-time CFO Graham Smith plans to retire in March 2015. Benioff said Smith has been a terrific CFO. Moreover, the company is now landing bigger deals for its cloud business. During the fourth quarter, Salesforce won more than 200 seven-figure deals and more than 10 eight-figure transactions during Q4. The company had landed only 150 such deals in the same quarter last year.
On June 7, 2013, Salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM) hired Keith Block as its vice chairman and president. Block also oversees the company’s sales operations. A former Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) executive, he was expected to help Salesforce land big deals with large enterprises. And the latest statistics show that he has delivered.
Salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM) shares have gained 55% over the past 12 months.
