Image source: salesforce.com.
What: Shares of salesforce.com (CRM 2.50%) have jumped today, up by 8% as of 12:54 p.m. ET, after the company reported solid fourth-quarter earnings and issued rosy guidance.
So what: Revenue in the fourth quarter came in at $1.81 billion, up 25% from a year ago. Unbilled deferred revenue similarly grew 25% to $7.1 billion. By the time you get to the bottom line, we're looking at $0.19 per share in adjusted earnings. Both revenue and earnings per share were right on target with consensus estimates, and Salesforce is closing out its fiscal 2016 with all-time highs in large transactions.
Now what: First-quarter guidance easily impressed investors as well. Revenue should be in the range of $1.885 billion to $1.895 billion, with adjusted earnings per share of $0.23 to $0.24. Compare those forecasts to the $1.86 billion in sales and $0.21-per-share profit that analysts were expecting. Full-year fiscal 2017 revenue should be right around $8.1 billion. Significantly, Salesforce's management indicated that the company is not experiencing any macroeconomic impacts that other cloud-based enterprise players are getting hurt by.
