Salesforce.com, Inc. (NYSE: CRM) late Tuesday [Feb 28, 2017 | 4:18pm] posted better than expected fourth quarter earnings results, but its outlook for the current year was lackluster, sending its shares lower in aftermarket trading.

Written by StockNews.com

The San Francisco-based cloud CRM firm reported adjusted Q4 EPS of $0.28, which was $0.03 better than the Wall Street consensus estimate of $0.25.

Revenues rose 26.8% from last year to $2.29 billion, also topping analysts’ $2.27 billion view.

Looking ahead, Salesforce forecast Q1 EPS of $0.25-0.26, which would miss Wall Street’s current $0.30 estimate. Q1 revenues are seen ranging from $2.34 to $2.35 billion, also below the analyst consensus of $2.37 billion.

For the full fiscal year 2018, CRM expects EPS of $1.27 to $1.29, straddling Wall Street’s view of $1.28. It also lifted its 2018 revenue outlook to a range of $10.15 to 10.20 billion, up from a prior $10.10 to 10.15 billion, and in-line with analysts’ $10.16 billion estimate.

The company commented via press release:

“Salesforce continues to deliver incredible innovation and unprecedented customer success,” said Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO, Salesforce. “We led the industry as the first to bring cloud, social and mobile to CRM, and now with our latest release we are making artificial intelligence available to millions of Salesforce users with Einstein.”

…

“In addition to our outstanding top-line results, we also delivered our first ever $2 billion year of operating cash flow,” said Mark Hawkins, CFO, Salesforce. “To put these results in perspective, over the last three years, we have doubled our revenue, nearly tripled our free cash flow and improved non-GAAP operating margin by more than 400 basis points.”

Salesforce.com, Inc. shares fell $1.70 (-2.09%) to $79.65 in after-hours trading Tuesday. Year-to-date, CRM has gained 18.83%, versus a 5.79% rise in the benchmark S&P 500 index during the same period.

CRM currently has a StockNews.com POWR Rating of A (Strong Buy), and is ranked #1 of 40 stocks in the Software – Business category.