On Monday, Salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM)’s shares started the week off with a strong jump, thanks to allegedly closing a historic transaction. But the details remain a mystery.
According to Arik Hesseldahl, of AllThingsDigital, Piper Jaffray analyst, Mark Murphy, wrote in client notes on Monday, that Salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM) has closed a large transaction valued higher than its $140 million deal earlier in the year with State Farm Insurance.
But he didn’t say what it was.
This is when the story may have started. Soon rumors were swirling it could be a large technology company. The size and timing of the deal will take bears by surprise, noted Murphy, as most of the company’s biggest deals are closed in the fiscal fourth quarter.
Just another usual aspect of this secret deal.
In addition, Murphy wrote, via Forbes, “The unprecedented cluster of multi-year mega-deals for Salesforce.com (NYSE:CRM) likely signifies a changing of the guard in the enterprise software industry, as the disproportionate winner of the Cloud War exerts even greater industry-wide dominance. Our survey of large-enterprise CIOs crowned Salesforce.com the #1 Cloud provider, and we believe CIOs are now voting with their wallets.”
The transaction was also seen as unexpected, said Murphy, and interestingly, it comes 10 days prior to Salesforce announcing its July-ending second quarter earnings report on Aug. 23. Will the earnings conference call turn into a possible forum for CEO Marc Benioff to address the matter?
This may be unlikely as Salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM) doesn’t list its largest customers, noted Hesseldahl. He did some investigative work, and wrote that in Salesforce.com’s recent 10-K, one unnamed customer represented 6 percent of the company’s accounts receivable as of Jan. 31. Other than that, there wasn’t a customer that was 5 percent or higher for its accounts receivable.
Furthermore, with a deal valued at $140 million, it comes to approximately 6 percent of the company’s 2012 revenue, but, with its amortization similar to subscriptions, that’s just another factor that will enable the company to not share details.
Salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM) has not commented on the news. Murphy kept his “Overweight” rating on the stock along with its $207 target.
In early morning trading, Salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM) shares increased by almost 3 percent, to $143.88. This equates to a year-to-date rise of about 42 percent. The stock has continued its rise and is now up 4.10 percent to $145.61.
Looking ahead to its earnings report, Salesforce.com’s previous results came on May 17. It had reported $0.37 earnings per share for the quarter. This exceeded analysts’ estimates of $0.34 by $0.03.
Salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM)’s revenue jumped 37.8 percent as compared to previous year.
For this upcoming report, analysts have forecast that Salesforce.com will see $1.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
