salesforce.com
What analysts say:
- Buy, sell or waffle? Thirty-two analysts give salesforce 16 buy ratings, 13 holds, and three sells.
- Revenues. On average, they expect to see 42% sales growth, to $273.6 million.
- Earnings. Profits are similarly expected to grow 40%, to $0.07 per share.
What management says:
Forty percent -- pretty, impressive, huh? Even Google
So it would appear that analysts are expecting a slowdown here -- as is salesforce itself. The guidance we got three months ago suggested revenue numbers bracketing Wall Street's estimate, along with pro forma profits of $0.08 or $0.09 (which is $0.06 or $0.07 in GAAP.)
What management does:
Today, salesforce boasts gross margins higher than competitor NetSuite
4/07 |
7/07 |
10/07 |
1/08 |
4/08 |
7/08 |
|
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Gross |
75.9% |
76.2% |
76.5% |
77.1% |
78.0% |
78.7% |
Operating |
(0.6%) |
0.2% |
1.1% |
2.7% |
4.3% |
5.3% |
Net |
0.3% |
0.9% |
1.7% |
2.5% |
3.3% |
3.6% |
All data courtesy of Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poor's. Data reflects trailing-12-month performance for the quarters ending in the named months.
One Fool says:
salesforce has done a lot right in getting from negative to positive margins, but last quarter it made a sudden change in game plan, inking its first ever "all you can eat" deal with Dell
Depending on where you sit, the move smacks of either brilliance, or desperation, as "unlimited access" plans often pop up in slowing-growth situations such as phone services and Internet access. I don't know about you, but when I read tomorrow's earnings news I'll be most interested in learning whether salesforce has been pursuing similar contracts with other customers, and I'll also be looking to see how the company's free cash flow looks.
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