Salesforce.com raises forecast after revenue beats Street

(Reuters) - Salesforce.com Inc raised its full-year forecast after reporting a better-than-expected 37 percent rise in quarterly revenue, helped by higher demand for its sales and marketing software. The world's biggest maker of online sales software said it now expects adjusted earnings of 49-51 cents per share on revenue of $5.30 billion to $5.34 billion for the year ending January 2015. Salesforce.com had earlier forecast adjusted earnings of 48-50 cents per share on revenue of $5.25 billion-$5.30 billion. Chief Executive Marc Benioff, who shrugged off for years Wall Street's calls to turn a bigger profit, said in February that the company would aim to improve margins. The company's net loss widened to $96.9 million, or 16 cents per share, in the first quarter ended April 30 from $67.7 million, or 12 cents per share. Excluding items, it earned 11 cents per share. Revenue jumped 37 percent to $1.23 billion from $892.6 million a year earlier. Analysts on an average had expected earnings of 10 cents per share on revenue of $1.21 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Unbilled deferred revenue, a critical measure of contracts closed with business customers, which remain off-balance sheets, rose 33 percent to $4.80 billion. San Francisco-based Salesforce.com's shares, which have lost 15 percent of their value in the last three months, were up almost 3 percent in extended trading at $54.33 on Tuesday. (Reporting by Sruthi Ramakrishnan in Bangalore; Editing by Joyjeet Das)