Company Update: Salesforce.com Inc (NYSE:CRM) – IBM to snap up Salesforce partner for $200 million

[at American City Business Journals] – In the latest of several cloud-related acquisitions, IBM (IBM) said it plans to acquire San Francisco-based cloud consultancy Bluewolf. Neither company has disclosed financial terms of the deal, but Recode reported that IBM will pay $200 million for the company, a consulting firm specializing in integration of Salesforce’s (CRM) CRM into companies’ existing IT structures. Read more: With flurry of deals, IBM’s Watson is gearing up for big things in S.F The acquisition will merge Bluewolf into IBM’s Interactive Experience unit, described as a “hybrid consultancy and digital agency” that helps companies develop personalized customer experiences. Read more on this. salesforce.com, inc. (CRM) , valued at $49.53B, started the session at $74.06. Looking at today’s market, CRM one day range is $73.38 to $74.39 and has traded between $52.60 and $82.90 over the past year. CRM shares are currently priced at 73.56x this year’s forecasted earnings, which makes them relatively expensive compared to the industry’s 17.40x forward p/e ratio. Consensus earnings for the current quarter by the 39 sell-side analysts covering the stock is an estimate of $0.23 per share, which would be $0.07 better than the year-ago quarter and a $0.02 sequential increase. What we find to be interesting is that the full-year EPS estimate of $1.01 is a $0.26 improvement when compared to the previous year’s annual results. The quarterly earnings estimate is predicated on a consensus revenue forecast of $1.89 Billion. If reported, that would be a 25.17% increase over the year-ago quarter. Recently, Macquarie Initiated CRM at Outperform (Mar 4, 2016). Previously, Credit Agricole upgraded CRM from Outperform to Buy. With the above information in mind, readers should note that the average price target is $88.07, which is 18.92% above where the stock opened this morning. See more in (NYSE:CRM) Similar Articles: Market Update: Salesforce.com Inc (NYSE:CRM) – Salesforce Grants Equity Awards Under Its Inducement Equity Incentive Plan Company Update (NYSE:CRM): Top 5 Mutual Fund Holders of Salesforce.com (CRM, ORCL) Company Update: Salesforce.com Inc (NYSE:CRM) – Salesforce Announces General Availability of Salesforce Health Cloud — Building Patient Relationships, Not Records