Cloud computing company Salesforce.com is set to report quarterly earnings Tuesday, and one strategist is watching closely, as it's one of the few remaining large tech names to report this earnings season.
The technology sector has posted a strong round of earnings, said Mark Tepper, CEO of Strategic Wealth Partners, and Salesforce.com shares have outperformed technology over the course of the year. He will be watching for whether the company can keep up, given the stock's hefty valuation of 66 times forward earnings, according to FactSet data. Here's what he will be looking for to confirm that.
• The trend in the company's international growth will be most interesting to Tepper, he explained Friday on CNBC's "Trading Nation." He said there is more opportunity to be had internationally.
• "We've seen 74 percent of sales coming from the Americas over the course of the last several years. We want to see that trend down, and we want to see more revenues coming from overseas," he said.
• He is also looking at its bottom-line results to see the extent to which expenses associated with overseas expansion are reflected in its net profits. Tepper added in an email to CNBC that this could prove to be a short-term headwind on profitability.
• Salesforce.com's top-line results are likely to benefit from its varied cloud offerings and spending on digital marketing, he added.
Analysts are expecting earnings of 37 cents per share, according to FactSet estimates. Salesforce.com shares have advanced 57 percent year to date.
Bottom line: Trends in international growth will be important to watch for in the company's earnings report next week.
