The second quarter was a highly anticipated one for salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) investors. After dropping billions of dollars this year on several high-profile acquisitions -- including $1.35 billion on ClickSoftware and $15.7 billion for Tableau Software -- the Salesforce community was keen to see how results would turn out. They didn't disappoint.
First, it must be noted that due to U.K. antitrust regulators deciding to review the takeover of Tableau, management was not able to discuss specifics of the big tie-up. Nevertheless, co-CEO Marc Benioff and the rest of the management team did report revenue of $4.0 billion, a 22% increase and well above the guidance given a few months back for $3.95 billion. In addition, $0.66 in adjusted earnings per share handily topped guidance for $0.46 to $0.47.
Adding Q1 and Q2 together, this software giant is having another incredible year -- especially for its already massive size -- with the top line still going well above 20%, a rising gross profit margin, and adjusted earnings increasing in spite of heavy spending to maximize sales growth.