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Salesforce.com (CRM) Moves 4.3% Higher: Will This Strength Last?

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Salesforce.com (CRM - Free Report) shares soared 4.3% in the last trading session to close at $153.53. The move was backed by solid volume with far more shares changing hands than in a normal session. This compares to the stock's 3.7% loss over the past four weeks.

The upswing came after the activist hedge fund Starboard Value founder Jeff Smith revealed buying stake in the enterprise software maker during an interview with CNBC’s David Faber. Smith didn’t disclose the dollar amount during the interview but stated that the stake is significant.

This customer-management software developer is expected to post quarterly earnings of $1.21 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of -4.7%. Revenues are expected to be $7.82 billion, up 14% from the year-ago quarter.

Earnings and revenue growth expectations certainly give a good sense of the potential strength in a stock, but empirical research shows that trends in earnings estimate revisions are strongly correlated with near-term stock price movements.

For Salesforce.com, the consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has remained unchanged over the last 30 days. And a stock's price usually doesn't keep moving higher in the absence of any trend in earnings estimate revisions. So, make sure to keep an eye on CRM going forward to see if this recent jump can turn into more strength down the road.

The stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stocks here >>>>

Salesforce.com is a member of the Zacks Computer - Software industry. One other stock in the same industry, Synopsys (SNPS - Free Report) , finished the last trading session 1% higher at $292.27. SNPS has returned -8.8% over the past month.

Synopsys' consensus EPS estimate for the upcoming report has remained unchanged over the past month at $1.84. Compared to the company's year-ago EPS, this represents a change of +1.1%. Synopsys currently boasts a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).


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