Fly Intel: What to watch in Salesforce earnings report

Salesforce (CRM) is scheduled to report results of its first fiscal quarter after the market close on Thursday, May 28, with a conference call scheduled for 5:00 pm ET. What to watch for: 1. GUIDANCE: Along with its fourth quarter earnings report, Salesforce set its fiscal year 2021 adjusted earnings per share view at $3.16-$3.18. Consensus for earnings, which was $3.10 at the time, has remained the same. The company also raised its 2021 revenue view to $21B-$21.1B from $20.8B-$20.9B. Consensus, which was $20.93B at the time, has dropped slightly to $20.77B. In addition, the company provided first quarter adjusted EPS guidance of 70c-71c on a revenue of $4.875B-$4.885B. Consensus for earnings, which was at 55c at the time, has risen to 69c, and estimates for revenue, which was at $4.84B, have increased to $4.85B. 2. CO-CEO STEPS DOWN: The company announced in February that Keith Block had stepped down as co-CEO of Salesforce and Marc Benioff would remain as Chair and CEO of the company. Additionally, Salesforce named Gavin Patterson, former BT Group CEO, its president and CEO of Salesforce International. 3. VLOCITY ACQUISITION: The company announced with its earnings report that it entered into an agreement to acquire Vlocity, a provider of industry-specific cloud and mobile software built natively on the Salesforce platform, for approximately $1.33B. The purchase price will be paid in cash and the assumption of outstanding unvested equity awards held by Vlocity employees. The acquisition is expected to close during Q2 of 2021, subject to customary closing conditions. 4. PARTNERSHIPS: RTW Retailwinds (RTW) announced in February a multi-year partnership for Salesforce to be its new digital ecommerce platform partner for all businesses, including New York & Company, Fashion to Figure, and Happy x Nature. Additionally in March, Salesforce announced an expanded relationship with Build-A-Bear Workshop (BBW) as its strategic partner in digital transformation. 5. ANALYST VIEWS: In May, Oppenheimer analyst Brian Schwartz raised the firm's price target on Salesforce to $195 from $165 and kept an Outperform rating on the shares. While the analyst acknowledges that the company is not immune from the COVID-19 issues, he believes the high priority SaaS enjoys across global enterprises is broadly unchanged. Jefferies analyst Brent Thill also raised the firm's price target on Salesforce to $205 from $180 and kept a Buy rating on the shares. The analyst noted that his survey of over 50 partners indicated that over 70% saw their CRM pipelines decrease due to the pandemic, but longer term, he sees its pipeline remaining robust. Additionally in May, RBC Capital analyst Alex Zukin lowered the firm's price target on Salesforce to $210 from $230 but kept an Outperform rating on the shares. The analyst said the company is not immune to the global demand trends, but he continues to see its Service Cloud, Commerce Cloud, Healthcare, FinServ and Contact Tracing efforts driving bookings momentum.