Salesforce Loss Narrows, Lifts Outlook; Stock Up 9%

(RTTNews) - Salesforce.com Inc. (CRM) on Wednesday reported a fourth-quarter loss that narrowed from a year ago, as revenues surged 25 percent. Earnings were in line with Wall Street estimates, while revenues trumped expectations, sending shares of the cloud computing company up by 9 percent in the extended hours.

The San Francisco, California-based company reported fourth-quarter loss of $25.5 million or $0.04 per share, narrower than last year's loss of $65.8 million or $0.10 per share.

Excluding special items, adjusted earnings for the quarter rose to $0.19 per share from $0.14 per share a year ago. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters estimated earnings of $0.19 per share for the quarter.

Salesforce.com, which competes with Oracle Corp and Sap AG, said its revenues for the fourth quarter grew 25 percent to $1.81 billion from $1.44 billion a year ago. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $1.79 billion for the quarter.

Subscription and support revenues rose 25 percent from last year, while professional services jumped 28 percent.

CEO Marc Benioff said, "We are raising our fiscal year 2017 revenue guidance to $8.12 billion at the high end of our range -- unprecedented growth for a company of our size and scale."

Looking forward to the first quarter, the company expects adjusted earnings of $0.23 to $0.24 per share on revenues of $1.89 billion to $1.90 billion. Analysts currently expect earnings of $0.21 per share on revenues of $1.86 billion.

For the full year, the company now expect earnings of $0.99 to $1.01 per share and revenues of $8.08 to $8.12 billion. Analysts currently estimate earnings of $0.99 per share on revenues of $8.08 billion.

CRM closed Wednesday's trading at $62.52, up $0.38 or 0.60%, on the NYSE. The stock further rose $5.72 or 9.15% in the after-hours trade.