Deutsche Bank Previews Salesforce.com's Q4 Print, Sees No Slowdown In Momentum

In a report published Monday, Deutsche Bank analyst Karl Keirstead previewed salesforce.com, inc.'s (NYSE: CRM) first quarter report which is scheduled to be released on February 25.

The analyst reached out to several checks in the SFDC ("Sales Force.Com") eco-system which suggested there is no slowdown in momentum.

"Feedback from our checks tilted positive," Keirstead wrote. "No one flagged a slowdown in deal momentum, not even in SFDC's larger and more mature Sales Cloud business."

Keirstead noted that checks suggested that the Service Cloud segment was the "most positive," with the only negative being that mega-deals of $50 million or more were "scarce." In the mid-market, the analyst's findings suggested that Microsoft Corporation's competing products are "getting more play" and sometimes impacts pricing, but that "SFDC wins the overwhelming majority of those decisions even though it does delay the cycle a bit."

Keirstead also concluded that bigger efforts from the likes of Oracle Corporation (NYSE: ORCL) and SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) have not yet impacted SFDC's pipeline and deal activity.

The analyst also wrote that the focus on salesforce.com's call will be billings growth and the outlook for fiscal 2016 non-GAAP operating margins along with the possibility that SFDC raises its initial fiscal 2016 revenue growth guidance of 24 percent which was "modestly disappointing."

Shares remain Buy rated with a $70 price target.