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Q1 Preview: Salesforce.com (CRM) Investors Focus on Bookings; Stock Continues to Be Analyst Favorite

By StreetInsider.com May 17, 2012, 03:33:10 PM EDT

Salesforce.com ( CRM ) shares are lower Thursday afternoon heading into the company's first-quarter 2013 earnings report, expected out after the market closes. The company will be holding a conference call at 2:00pm PDT (5:00pm EDT) today, click here to go to the webcast.

Analysts currently expect earnings growth of 21.4 percent to 28 cents per share on revenue of $678.2 million. Numbers compare with EPS of 43 cents reported in the last quarter.

Implied volatility on Salesforce.com is down about 1 percent to 62.7 percent, which is 175.8 percent above its trailing annual average. Notably, Jun 12 135/140 calls (not the spread) are seeing some higher volume.

Shares of Salesforce.com moved 33 percent higher through the quarter to $155.73 at the end of April. In the same period last year, the stock rose about 5 percent.

Data from Bloomberg has 32 analysts with a Buy rating on Salesforce.com. three with a Hold, and five at Sell. The analyst price target average is $172, ranging from $91 to $215.

The stock is trading about 3.5 percent above its 200-day daily SMA, while the 50-day SMA is at $152.

Note: The company guided for revs of $673 million to $678 million and non-GAAP EPS of 33 cents to 34 cents with its latest quarterly report.

Analyst Comments

  • Goldman Sachs is looking for EPS of 34 cents on revs of $678 million. In terms of bookings, Goldman is expecting bookings to come in below 30 percent, with only a slight chance to surpass that mark based on "stronger European deal signings and contributions from off balance sheet deferreds." Thus, bookings should be about $634 million, in-line with guidance.

    The firm sees deferred revenue of $1.34 billion, up 46 percent from last year. Cash from operations should move 58 percent higher to $221 million.

  • Deutsche Bank sees EPS of 34 cents on revs of $677 million. Its billings outlook was recently lowered from 30 percent down to 28 percent growth. Deutsche said despite the quarterly numbers, Salesforce.com is becoming more than just a point solution vendor, transitioning into a viable enterprise solution for larger corporations. In addition, the suite is robust enough to be introduced at the CEO level to cover all lines of business.

  • Wells Fargo sees EPS of 34 cents and revs of $676 million, with $1.33 billion in ending deferred revs.
Stay tuned to StreetInsider.com's EPS Insider section to see our analysis of the highly-anticipated quarterly results within seconds of their release. You can also check out salesforce.com's past performance at Streetinsider's salesforce.com's Income Statement .




The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc.


This article appears in: Investing, Stocks

Referenced Stocks: CRM



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