On November 30, Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) is expected to release its third-quarter financial results. Investment firm Wedbush Securities expects the Marc Benioff-founded company to announce “generally solid” results, despite some downturn in the software sector and the global economy. This development is likely to impact Salesforce stock prospects for the rest of the year.
Analyst Dan Ives noted that industry cloud deal activity has continued to be strong in general, with Tableau and MuleSoft performing better than expected, and that the deal pipeline is still strong going into the next three to six months. Ives has an outperformed rating and a $215 price target on Salesforce.
However, Ives noted in a letter to clients that “the slower macro is definitely at play as a number of agreements we were following took longer to complete but finally concluded before the end of the quarter on the sales/marketing front.”
The analyst continued, giving Wall Street assurance in the company’s narrative during this “near-term macro storm” by predicting that Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) will “at least hit and somewhat surpass Street projections.”
Salesforce Stock and Overall Outlook
Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) is expected to earn an adjusted $1.22 per share on $7.83B in revenue, according to analyst forecasts. Ives stated that Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) is concentrating on four growth pillars in the future, one of which is increasing customer 360.
Ives said that because Customer 360 has become Salesforce’s main product line, the business is constantly concentrating on product innovation to stay one step ahead of the competition.
The analyst says that the company still has a “huge opportunity” because it has a diverse client base that uses many clouds. For just 5-7 cloud users, this generates a recurring annual income of 72-300 times. Ives said that since the company has made it a priority to use multiple clouds, customers who use four or more clouds make up about 20% of all customers and 85% of all annual recurring revenue.
Ives added that given the decline in valuations, it may be possible for Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) to go on the “attack” in terms of new acquisitions, including pursuing private and smaller public players. Prior to Salesforce’s third-quarter results last week, Deutsche Bank lowered its projections, citing worries about macro uncertainty and the impact of currency fluctuations.
Featured Image: Pixabay @ RJA1988
Author Jowi Kwasu 
