Salesforce.com Has Had 'Meet Or Beat' Quarters For The Past 7 Years; Will The Streak Continue?

Salesforce.com, inc. CRM will announce its fiscal second-quarter results on August 31 after the market close, and D.A. Davidson expects the company to report an in-line EPS, while projecting revenue above consensus.

The brokerage expects non-GAAP EPS of $0.22, which matched the Street's mean and is within the high end of company guidance calling for $0.21–$0.22. Revenue is expected to grow 24.2 percent year-over-year to $2.030 billion, above consensus of $2.017 billion and guidance calling for $2.005 billion–$2.025 billion.

"We note that CRM has met or beaten consensus revenue and EPS estimates in each quarter for at least the past seven years," analyst Jack Andrews wrote in a note.

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Andrews, who has a Neutral rating on the stock, forecast billings to grow 20.2 percent year-over-year to $1.938 billion and his deferred revenue forecast of $3.915 billion represents 29 percent growth and compares to guidance of 26–28 percent.

The analyst also noted that a weaker GBP may weigh on quarterly results. In the first quarter, salesforce got 17.1 percent of its revenue in Europe and 9.2 percent in the Asia Pacific region.

Meanwhile, Andrews urged investors not to expect material upward revisions in FY2017 outlook. Salesforce provided its latest FY2017 revenue guidance of $8.260 billion–$8.320 billion after the announcement of its intent to acquire Demandware.

"While investors are likely to view this guide conservatively, we note that the degree of conservatism compared with the final FY revenue results has been narrowing in recent years. Nonetheless, now that the Demandware deal has officially closed, we believe a modest incremental increase is possible," Andrews highlighted.

On the M&A front, salesforce has acquired seven companies thus far in 2016, compared with a total of 13 acquisitions completed between 2012 and 2015. The analyst said the company's comments on long-term strategy and opportunities would drive share price in the near term.

At time of writing, shares of salesforce were down 0.36 percent to $79.64. Andrews has a price target of $86.

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