How Analysts View Salesforce After Earnings

When Salesforce.com Inc. (NYSE: CRM) announced its earnings, investors were excited that it has raised fiscal 2017 guidance. As a result of this earnings report, analysts hiked their price targets for this stock.

24/7 Wall St. has included some highlights from the earnings report, as well as what analysts are saying about Salesforce after the fact.

Revenue rose 27% to $1.92 billion, but this would have been up 28% on a constant currency measure. Deferred revenue, a measure of future orders, was up 31% to $4.01 billion. Thomson Reuters had a consensus revenue estimate of $1.89 billion.

Its second-quarter revenue guidance is $2.005 billion to $2.015 billion, versus a $1.98 billion consensus estimate. On forward guidance, Salesforce sees fiscal year 2017 revenue guidance of $8.16 billion to $8.20 billion, versus a consensus number of $8.12 billion. Unbilled deferred revenue of approximately $7.6 billion, up 27%, is expected.

The revenue breakdown showed additional gains on both key metrics in the first quarter. Subscription and support revenues rose 26% to $1.78 billion, and professional services (and other) revenues were up 33% to $141 million.

Quite a few analysts weighed in on Salesforce after earnings were reported:

• Barclays has an Overweight rating and raised its price target to $89 from $88.
• Brean has a Buy rating and raised its price target to $110 from $100.
• Canaccord Genuity has a Buy rating and raised its target from $88 to $95.
• Evercore ISI has a Buy rating and raised its price target to $100.
• Jefferies has a Hold rating and raised its price target to $80 from $74.
• JMP Securities has an Outperform rating and raised its price target from $90 to $92.
• Mizuho has a Buy rating and raised its price target to $100 from $90.
• Oppenheimer has an Outperform rating and raised its target to $95 from $88.
• Baird has an Outperform rating and raised its price target to $90 from $85.
• BTIG has a Buy rating and raised its price target to $100.
• CLSA raised its price target from $89 to $94.
• Deutsche Bank raised its price target to $95 from $90.
• Deutsche Bank has a Buy rating and raised its price target to $95 from $90.
• FBN raised its price target to $100 from $95.
• Goldman Sachs has a Buy rating and raised its target to $105 from $99.
• Raymond James has a Strong Buy rating and raised its target to $100 from $90.
• RBC has an Outperform rating and raised its price target to $92 from $80.
• SunTrust Robinson lifted its price target to $96 from $89.
• UBS has a Buy rating and raised its price target to $100.
• Wedbush raised its price target from $95 to $98.
• Wunderlich raised its price target to $101 from $93.

Share of Salesforce closed trading at $81.03 on Friday. The consensus analyst price target is $95.74, and the 52-week trading range is $52.60 to $82.90.

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.