Pacific Crest Increases Salesforce.com Estimates After Strong Q2 Results

Pacific Crest improves outlook for Salesforce.com, while reiterating an $80 price target, along with an Overweight rating.

Pacific Crest has restated an Overweight rating to the stock of Salesforce.com, Inc.  with target price of $80 yesterday, revealed in a sell side report. The firm upgraded its future outlook for the company following by its second quarter financial results for fiscal year 2016 after the bell rings on Thursday.

The company’s latest quarter results showed overall revenue growth of around 24% on year over year basis and approximately 28% in constant currency basis, despite being pretentious by an exclusively complex growth comparison for the fiscal year. Reliant on Salesforce over performed guidance and constant growth, the sell side research firm believes the stock to hit at least $80 mark.

The cloud computing Solutions Company reported positive billing outcomes for second quarter FY16, with sales surpassing the consensus forecast. The company reported a transparent period, despite foreign exchange volatility adversely impacting the currency.

Salesforce.com, Inc. beat its billing forecast by more than 25% and 19.3% on year over year and constant currency basis, respectively; it also surpassed analysts billing forecast of $1.58 billion. The sales revenue for the quarter came in at $1.63 billion, up 24% on year over year basis and 28% in constant currency, also more than the Street’s forecast of $1.60 billion.

The company reported earnings of 19 cents per share for the quarter ended on July 31, surpassing the consensus estimate of 17 cents per share, Sales force’s cash flow from operations stood at $304.4 million more than analysts’ expectation of around $249.9 million. However, the $3.03 billion of deferred revenue missed the analysts’ estimation of $3.05 million.

According to the analysts polled by Bloomberg, 40 of them rate the stock with Buy, four recommend a Hold, and 5 suggest gave it a Sell rating. The twelve month consensus stock price target stands at $80.87, showing an upside return potential of 21.1% compared to current closing price.

In news, Co-founder G Parker Harris III sold 5,583 shares for around $374,751 through 5 transactions on August 24 and 25. After these transactions, Mr. Harris has now left with the ownership of 23,305 shares, priced at 1,519,019.9 as of Tuesday. Burke F. Norton, Chief Legal Officer divested around 6,092 shares for $405,910 on August 24. Following the sale, he is now left with 57,342 shares. The company’s Chief Accounting Officer, Joe Allanson also sold 512 shares for $34,115 on the same day.

Salesforce.com, Inc. stock was up 0.02% to $65.18 at market close on Tuesday August 25.

Arena Pharmaceuticals first quarter earnings preview

Arena is scheduled to announce its first quarter of fiscal year 2015 earnings on Monday May 11.

Arena Pharmaceuticals is all set to report its first quarter earnings for fiscal year 2015 today, May 11.  Analysts have estimated the earnings to be around 14 cents per share and revenue to be around $10.56 million for the period covering January to March. The company’s performance has not been up to the mark last year as it missed earnings forecast in three of its last four quarters. However, the mean earnings surprise in the last four quarters stood at +4.27%.

The biopharmaceutical firm previously announced its quarterly earnings on Monday March 2^nd. In which, the company was able to report 15 cents in earnings per share surpassing analyst projection of 12 cents by 3 cents. The company had $9.20 million in revenue for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2014 against $10.36 million estimated by analysts. During the similar quarter last year, Arena reported earnings of 11 cents per share and its revenue was up by 41.5% on year over year basis. On the whole, the analysts believe the company to report full year earnings per share of 52 cents and 40 cents for the upcoming fiscal year. 

On Friday May 8, Arena Pharmaceuticals stock opened at $4.18 and witnessed 2.17% upward movement and reached $4.24 before the market close. The company has 1 year low and high of $3.26 and $7.17, respectively. The stock of Arena has 50 and 200 day moving average of $4 along with $1.02 billion of market capitalization.

The company is taking on challenges of enhancing health by looking to bring groundbreaking medicines aiming G protein coupled receptors. Arena Pharmaceutical emphasize on developing, discovering and commercializing drugs to report needs of medical, and BELVIQ is company’s first internally revealed drug, which is permitted for marketing. The company’s operations are situated in San Diego, California and it’s Outside the country operations including its commercial making are situated in Switzerland.

Zacks analysts downgraded Arena Pharmaceuticals shares to an under perform from previous rating of neutral and assigned $4 price target to the company’s stock on Friday. Out of the analysts covering Arena’s stock, 2 of them have given sell rating; one gave hold rating while 3 of them assigned a rating of Buy to the stock of the company.

Canadian Solar reported First Quarter FY15 earnings

The solar cell manufacturer's first quarter revenue came in at $860.9 million and $1.04 in earnings per share.

Canadian Solar Inc. announced its first quarter fiscal year 2015 earnings result on Thursday May 7. The solar cell maker company was able to post earnings of $1.04 per share 44 cents more than consensus estimate of 60 cents. The company also reported $860.9 million in revenue against $735.12 million estimated by analyst. The first quarter earnings also rose considerably from $0.07 a share in the prior year quarter.

Company’s total solar module shipments were around 1.23 GW in the first quarter, out of which 1.03 GW was known in revenue, as compared to 897 MW in revenue in the previous quarter of fiscal year 2014 and from 1Q guidance in 1 GW to 1.03 GW range.

Net revenue for the quarter was $860.9 million lower than previous quarter revenue of $956.2 million.

Chairman and CEO of Canadian Solar Panel , Dr. Shawn said, "This is an exciting time for us to be in the solar industry. All of our hard work since founding the Company has positioned Canadian Solar as a strong global leader of the solar industry.  We are in the right markets with an excellent team capable of delivering on our growth strategy.  We have always taken a long-term view on the solar energy market.  Our goal is to build upon Canadian Solar strengths, to create sustainable value for our shareholders”.

During the 1QFY15, the company’s late stage solar projects rose roughly by 1 to 2.5 GW mainly because of recurrent acquisitions. These projects consist of joint venture, owned projects and projects where Canadian Solar offers procurement, engineering and construction services.

As previously reported, in Canada, the company had shut down 3 solar plants, namely, Gelarm, GoldLight, and CityLights, which totals 30 MW AC and was valued at $162 million. The late stage, utility scale project pipeline of the company  in Ontario now stood at roughly 184.2 MW DC, reflecting an opportunity for revenue of 600 million Canadian dollars as the projects are finished and can recognize revenue under their US GAAP rules and regulations.

Canadian Solar stock was up 1.04% to $34.28 at market close on Thursday May 7 and declined further by 0.29% to $34/18 during after hour trading.