Salesforce Beats On Earnings And Increases Guidance, But Stock Falls

Salesforce.com Inc. produced better earnings than expected in its fiscal second quarter and increased its expectations for profit and revenue for the full year Tuesday, but shares still declined in late trading. The cloud-software company said that it had net income of $17.7 million, or 2 cents a share, on total revenue of $2.56 billion in the second quarter of its 2018 fiscal year, a sales increase of more than 25% from the year-ago quarter. After adjusting for stock-based compensation and other effects, the company claimed earnings of 33 cents a share, up from 24 cents a share a year ago. Analysts on average expected Salesforce to report adjusted earnings of 32 cents a share on sales of $2.52 billion, according to FactSet. The company raised its forecast for the full year, adding a penny to its profit projection to make it $1.29 to $1.31 a share and $100 million to its revenue guidance, which is now $10.35 billion to $10.4 billion. Salesforce stock dipped about 3% in late trading.