What to look for when Salesforce (CRM) reports Q3 earnings

Salesforce.com Inc. (NYSE: CRM) is slated to release its earnings results for the third quarter of 2020 on Tuesday, December 3, after the market closes. The results will be driven by the delivery of enterprise software through the cloud with a focus on customer relationship management.

With the development of technologies such as cloud, mobile, social, Internet of Things (IoT), and artificial intelligence, the company could remain beneficial by the growth at least in the near future.

Read: Palo Alto Networks Q1 earnings review

The company depends on subscription fees from customers accessing its enterprise cloud exchange for revenue growth in the third quarter. The professional services including process mapping, project management, and implementation services could also be behind the top-line growth.

Analysts expect the company’s earnings to increase by 8.20% to $0.66 per share and revenue will jump by 31.10% to $4.45 billion for the third quarter. The company has surprised investors by beating analysts’ expectations in all of the past four quarters. The majority of the analysts recommended a “buy” rating with an average price target of $189.20.

Read: Intuit Q1 earnings review

For the second quarter, Salesforce posted a 70% dip in earnings due to higher costs and expenses despite a 22% increase in revenue. The top-line growth was driven by better performance at the subscription and support segment as well as professional services and other divisions.

For the third quarter, the company expects adjusted earnings of $0.65 to $0.66 per share and revenues in the range of $4.44 billion to $4.45 billion. For the full year 2020, adjusted earnings are anticipated to be $2.82 to $2.84 per share and revenue is predicted to be $16.75 billion to $16.90 billion.

Get access to timely and accurate verbatim transcripts that are published within hours of the event.