Salesforce.com Beats Q3 Views, Outlook Disappoints

Salesforce.com, Inc. CRM beat expectations for the recent third quarter Wednesday, but offered disappointing outlook for revenue growth.

The San Francisco cloud-based marketing services company fell more than 4 percent in the extended session recently, to $58.41 per share.

"Given the tremendous response to our Customer Success Platform, I'm delighted to announce a fiscal 2016 revenue projection of $6.5 billion at the high end of the range," Chief Executive Marc R. Benioff said.

But Wall Street expected $6.6 billion in 2016 revenue.

The company also forecast fourth-quarter 2014 adjusted EPS of $0.13 to $0.14, on revenue of $1.436 billion to $1.441 billion, vs. analysts' expectation of $0.15, on revenue of $1.45 billion.

In the recent third quarter, cash generated from operations fell 11 percent to $123 million.

Subscription and support revenue in the period grew 28 percent to $1.29 billion; professional services and other revenue were $95 million, up 33 percent. Deferred revenue on the balance sheet as of October 31 was up 28 percent to $2.22 billion.

The third-quarter loss narrowed to $38.9 million, or $0.06 per share, from a year-earlier loss of $121.4 million or $0.24 per share. Revenue grew to $1.38 billion, from $1.07 billion last year.

Adjusted earnings equaled $0.14 per share.

Wall Street expected adjusted EPS of $0.13, on revenue of $1.37 billion.