Salesforce beats Street, shares jump

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Cloud-based software maker Salesforce.com Inc (CRM.N) announced stronger-than-expected quarterly results and an upbeat sales forecast for the current quarter, sending its shares up 7.4 percent.

Salesforce also forecast full-year revenue to exceed $2 billion for the first time due to strong demand for its business software that users can access online.

"While it took us a decade to achieve our first billion dollars, we anticipate reaching $2 billion just three years later," Chief Executive Marc Benioff said in a statement.

It forecast revenue of $2.03 billion to $2.05 billion for the year through next January, up 23 to 24 percent from the previous year.

For the fourth-quarter, it reported profit excluding items of 31 cents per share, on revenue of $457 million. Analysts on average expected earnings of 26 cents per share on revenue of $453 million.

It forecast first-quarter revenue of around $480 million to $482 million, compared to Wall Street's average forecast of $471 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The shares rose to $144.25 in extended trading after closing at $134.32.

(Reporting by Ritsuko Ando; Editing by Richard Chang, Bernard Orr)