Salesforce.com Results Tops View; Lifts FY15 Outlook

(RTTNews) - Cloud computing company Salesforce.com (CRM), Tuesday said its its first-quarter loss widened from a year ago, despite a 37 percent growth in revenues as operating costs rose sharply. Earnings for the quarter beat Wall Street estimates by a penny, as did revenues.

Moving ahead, Salesforce.com raised its revenue and adjusted earnings outlook for the fiscal year 2015.

Salesforce.com, which competes with bigger rivals Oracle Corp. (ORCL) and Sap AG (SAP), has been posting successive quarterly losses due to expenses that exceed revenue.

San Francisco, California-based Salesforce.com's first-quarter loss widened to $96.9 million or $0.16 per share from $67.7 million or $0.12 per share last year.

On an adjusted basis, earnings rose to $69.5 million or $0.11 per share from $61.0 million or $0.10 per share last year. On average, 38 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $0.10 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Total revenues for the first quarter grew 37 percent to $1.23 billion from $892.63 million last year. Thirty-five analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $1.21 billion for the quarter.

Subscription and support revenues, the major contributor to the top line, rose 36 percent to $1.15 billion, while professional services revenues rose 58 percent to $79 million.

"Salesforce.com had a strong start to its fiscal year. We delivered 37% year-over-year growth in revenue, and 67% year-over-year growth in operating cash flow in the first quarter," said Marc Benioff, Chairman and CEO, salesforce.com.

Total operating expenses rose to $989.81 million from $728.18 million last year.

Looking forward to the second quarter, Salesforce.com expects a loss of $0.13 to $0.12 per share, adjusted earnings of $0.11 to $0.12 per share, and revenues of $1.285 billion to $1.290 billion. Analysts currently estimate earnings of $0.12 per share on revenues of $1.27 billion.

For the full year 2015, the company now expects loss of $0.49 to $0.47 per share, adjusted earnings of $0.49 to $0.51 per share and revenues of $5.30 billion to $5.34 billion. Analysts currently project earnings of $0.50 per share on revenues of $5.29 billion for the full year 2015.

Earlier, the company expected full-year 2015 loss of $0.53 to $0.51 per share, adjusted earnings of $0.48 to $0.50 and revenues of $5.25 billion to $5.30 billion.

CRM closed Tuesday's trading at $52.89, down $0.34 or 0.64%, on the NYSE. The stock, however, gained $0.36 or 0.68%, in after-hours trade.