Salesforce.com Inc (NASDAQ: CRM) reported 51% rise in net profit to $196.33 million or $0.28 per share in fourth quarter of 2016. This was higher than $129.66 million of $0.19 per share in the corresponding period.  The Q4 GAAP loss was $0.07 per share.  Revenues for core sales for the period increased 13.3% to $3 billion, a faster rise than in recent years beating analyst estimates. Overall revenues were higher by 26.5% to $2.29 billion Vs $1.81 billion. Subscription revenues were at $2.11 billion, up 25% YoY and professional services and other revenues were $183 million, up by 45% YoY.

For the the full year of 2016, Salesforce.com reported revenues of $8.39 billion, up by 26%. Subscription revenues were at $7.76 billion, up 25% and professional services were higher by 38% to $636 million. The deferred revenues on the balance sheet as on January 2017 was $5.54 billion higher by 29% YoY. Street analyst says the expansion to the new features in the product such as recommendations for salespeople should call next and a growing overall market for sales software contributed the rise in revenues. The company has launched its artificial intelligence platform Einstein in October as part of its strategy to broaden its service portfolio to keep existing users.

Cash generated from operations were $706 million for Q4FY17 and $2.16 billion, up 29% for full year.  The cash balance as on balance sheet date was $$2.21 billion.

Going forward,

Salesforce.com guided FY18 revenues to be in the range of $10.15 -$10.20 billion, a rise of 21% -22% YoY. GAAP earnings per share to be in the range of $0.05-$0.07 while non-GAAP would be in the range of $1.27 – $1.29.  The company expects operating cash flow growth in the range of 20%-21% YoY.

For the first quarter of FY18, the company expects revenues approximately of $2.35 billion, an increase of 22%-23% and GAAP loss per share to be $0.03-$0.02 and non-GAAP earnings per share to be $0.25- $0.26

Salesforce.com has been focusing on acquisitions and partnerships to bolster its services and gain market share and faces a stiff competition from Microsoft Corp and Oracle Corp.

Meanwhile, the stock fell over 1% in the last five days but recovered over 13% in the last three months (as of Feb 28th, 2017; Source: Google finance). The stock has a consensus “Strong Buy” rating with a consensus target price of $95.