November 18, 2010, 5:29 PM — Enterprise cloud computing vendor Salesforce.com on Thursday reported fiscal third quarter net income and revenue that exceeded analysts' estimates, sending shares higher in after-hours trading.
The San Francisco-based company recorded Q3 earnings of $21 million, or 15 cents a share, about equal to the $20.7 million, or 16 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter. Revenue of $429 million and non-adjusted profits of 32 cents a share topped consensus estimates of $410.5 million and 31 cents, respectively.
Shares of Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) surged 9.43, or more than 8 percent, to 125.20 in after-hours trading. And that's after climbing 5.62, or 5.1 percent, to 115.77 during Thursday's regular session.
In a statement, Chairman and CEO Marc Benioff said, “After taking a decade to achieve our first billion dollar year in fiscal 2009, we believe that our strong growth this year will allow us to deliver approximately $2 billion in revenue in fiscal 2012, making salesforce.com the first cloud computing company to achieve that milestone.”
The company forecasts Q4 revenue of $447 million to $449 million, well above estimates of $425 million. For fiscal year 2011, Salesforce.com estimates revenue of nearly $1.65 billion, versus estimates of $1.61 billion.
Chris Nerney writes about the business side of technology market strategies and trends, legal issues, leadership changes, mergers, venture capital, IPOs and technology stocks. Follow him on Twitter @ChrisNerney.
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