Salesforce.com posted better than expected first quarter FY16 results

Salesforce.com stock climbs after strong first-quarter results, beating both the revenue and earnings estimates.

Salesforce.com announced its first quarter fiscal year 2016 earnings on Wednesday May 20. The company posted quarterly earnings and revenue better than consensus estimates, as its cloud computing division sales grew tremendously year over year.

The company reported non-GAAP first quarter earnings of $0.16 per share increased by 11% from prior year quarter. Revenue grew 23% and reach $1.51 billion.

Chief Executive Officer of Salesforce, March Benioff hyped the performance of the company related to its competitors, saying Salesforce beat annual revenue of $6 billion faster than any other software firm.

Mr. Benioff said in an interview to CNBC, "Today I am saying we are the fastest to $6 billion, but for me that's the past and I am all about the future, and all I am focused on right now is my dream and my dream is to be the fastest software company to $10 billion. That is what I am working on every single day,"

Analysts had projected Salesforce to post $0.14 in earnings per share on revenue of $1.50 billion, as per consensus estimate by Thomson Reuters. The software company also increased its full fiscal year guidance on revenue in $6.52 billion - $6.55 billion range, which is 20% more than previous year guidance.

Mr. Benioff also remarked regarding competition of the company in cloud computing division, and said SAP and Oracle are "falling behind" depending on their results, lately.

The company estimates $175 to $200 million of adverse impact from strengthening US dollar. In spite of currency headwinds, company’s sales grew in each of its 3 main geographic locations, Europe, Asia Pacific and Americas.

Company’s President and Vice Chairman, Keith Block said in the conference call that Europe is the "fastest growing region" for the company. For the upcoming second quarter of fiscal year 2016, Wall Street expects earnings per share to come in at $0.17 on $1.59 billion of revenue.

However, the company believes that it will be able to post $1.59 to $1.60 billion in revenue, translating to a smack of 21% year over year basis, with adjusted earnings most likely to decline to $0.17 to $0.18 per share.

Salesforce.com stock went up by 6.88% to $74.99 during pre-market trading session today as of 4:08 AM EDT.