Salesforce.com 2nd-quarter profit surges, tops Wall Street expectations; shares jump

Salesforce.com 2Q profit soars, sales climb

SAN FRANCISCO — Sales management software maker Salesforce.com Inc. said Thursday its fiscal second-quarter profit more than doubled as the company added thousands of new customers and grew its revenue.

For the three months ended July 31, the company earned $21.2 million, or 17 cents per share, up from a profit of $10 million, or 8 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier.

Revenue rose 20 percent to $316.1 million from $263.1 million.

Analysts, on average, were expecting a profit of 15 cents per share on sales of $312.5 million, according to a poll by Thomson Reuters.

The company said it added 3,900 net new customers during the quarter, bringing the total to more than 63,000. With businesses striving to cut costs amid the recession, more are dispensing with making their own hardware and software purchases and instead pay a company like SalesForce.com to provide only the customer management services they need, over the Internet.

For the current quarter, the company forecast a profit of 15 cents to 16 cents per share on sales of $323 million to $324 million. That’s above analysts’ average estimates for profit of 15 cents per share on sales of $318.4 million.

For the full year, the company raised its forecast to earnings of 60 cents to 61 cents per share on sales of $1.27 billion to $1.28 billion. Analysts are expecting a profit of 60 cents per share on sales of $1.26 billion.

The positive report sent shares jumping $4.07, or 8.8 percent, to $50.25 in after-hours trading. The stock had closed earlier up $1.14 at $46.18.