WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Salesforce.com Inc. (CRM) Tuesday reported a wider loss for the third quarter, hurt mainly by a hefty tax charge and higher operating costs. Nonetheless, excluding special items, earnings for the quarter improved from a year ago on a 35 percent revenue growth.
Salesforce.com's earnings and revenues for the quarter came in ahead of analysts' expectations. Meanwhile, looking forward to the full year, the company now estimates loss to be wider than earlier forecast, but raised its adjusted earnings and revenue outlook.
Salesforce.com, which competes with bigger rivals such as Oracle Corp. and Sap AG, said total revenues for the third quarter quarter grew to $788.40 million from $584.26 million last year. Analysts estimated revenues of $776.52 million for the quarter.
'Salesforce.com is the first enterprise cloud computing company to exceed a $3 billion annual revenue run rate, with outstanding third quarter revenue growth at 35% in dollars and 37% in constant currency,' said Chief Executive Marc Benioff. '...we expect to surpass a $4 billion annual revenue run rate during our fiscal year 2014.'
As of October 31, deferred revenue was $1.29 billion, an increase of 41 percent from last year.
Salesforce.com's third-quarter loss widened to $220.30 million or $1.55 per share from $3.76 million or $0.03 per share last year.
During the quarter, Salesforce.com recorded a non-cash charge to income tax expense of $149 million to establish a valuation allowance against a significant portion of its deferred tax assets.
Excluding special items, adjusted income for the three-month period was $49.64 million or $0.33 per share, compared to $49.01 million or $0.34 per share last year. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $0.32 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.
Looking forward to the fourth quarter, the company expects a loss of $0.23 to $0.25 per share, adjusted earnings of $0.38 to $0.40 per share and revenues of $825 million to $830 million. Analysts currently expected earnings of $0.40 per share on revenues of $829.88 million for the quarter.
For the full year 2013, Salesforce.com now expects a loss of $2.00 to $2.02 per share, adjusted earnings of $1.50 to $1.52 per share and revenues of $3.041 billion to $3.046 billion.
Analysts currently expect earnings of $1.50 per share on revenues of $3.03 billion for the full year.
Previously, the company expected loss of $0.75 to $0.72 per share, adjusted earnings of $1.48 to $1.51 per share, and revenues of $3.025 billion to $3.035 billion for fiscal year 2013.
For the full year 2014, Salesforce.com expects revenues of about $3.80 billion to $3.85 billion. Analysts currently anticipate revenues of $3.83 billion for the year.
CRM closed Thursday's trading at $145.90, down $1.42 or 0.96%, on a volume of 2.9 million shares on the NYSE. In after hours, the stock gained $0.05 or 0.03%.
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