Salesforce.com (CRM) provides applications that manage customer information for sales, marketing and customer support. It has a customer base of approximately 85,000 clients. Its service provides sales leads, maintaining customer information and tracking customer interactions.

Intuit (INTU) caters to small businesses with its QuickBooks and TurboTax software. As well, it provides payroll and financial software for small businesses. The company has about 50 million users of its products.

U.S. stock futures are higher this morning, as investors await ADP employment data. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 51 points to 12,276.00, and those for the S&P 500 index gained 6.20 points to 1,322.70. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index added 16.50 points to 2,339.00.

Overseas, positive sentiment ruled the European markets today. While STOXX Europe 600 Index has gained 0.79%, London's FTSE 100 Index moved up 0.50%.

Shares of customer relationship software giant Salesforce.com (CRM), which I first wrote about on June 18, 2009, at a price of $40.16, have pulled back this winter from a high near $151 to about $125, but I still like the shares at this juncture. Here's why.

Salesforce.com is a company whose products and services are hot. Revenue likely will rise 25% to 30% in FY2012, following a 27% surge in FY201.

Salesforce.com designs "on-demand" customer relationship software, software that lowers up-front investment, increases vendor accountability and enables flexible subscription pricing, among other benefits.

The past few years have been brutal for small businesses but it looks like things are starting to improve. A report from the National Federation of Independent Business shows that confidence is at a three-year high. There are even more plans to hire employees.

Well, top companies and investors are seeing opportunity. For example, Google (GOOG) Ventures, Salesforce.com (CRM) and Sequoia Capital have announced a $32 million round for HubSpot.

Analyst Upgrades

• SINA (SINA) to overweight from neutral at Piper Jaffray.
• Texas Instruments (TXN), ON Semiconductor (ONNN), Xilinx (XLNX) and Valassis (VCI) to overweight from neutral at JPMorgan.
• Salesforce.com (CRM) to buy from hold at Canaccord.
• Peet's Coffee (PEET) to buy from neutral at Janney Capital.
• Invesco Mortgage (IVR) to overweight from equal weight at Barclays.
• BTU International (BTUI) to buy from hold at Wunderlich.
• Coca-Cola Femsa (KOF) to overweight from neutral at HSBC.
• Chipotle (CMG) to market perform from underperform at Morgan Keegan.

U.S. stock futures are higher Friday morning as crude oil prices stabilized. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 55 points to 12,092.00, while those for the S&P 500 index climbed 7 points to 1,309.70. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index rose 15.50 points to 2,323.75.

U.S. stock market closed mixed yesterday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping 37.28 points, the Nasdaq Composite gaining 14.91 points and the S&P 500 declining 1.30 points.

Analyst Upgrades

• U.S. Steel (X) to buy from neutral and Barnes & Noble (BKS) to neutral from sell at Goldman.
• Salesforce.com (CRM) to buy from hold at Jefferies.
• Dollar Tree (DLTR) to overweight from equal weight at Barclays.
• Edison International (EIX) to hold from sell at Citigroup.
• Analog Devices (ADI) to overweight from neutral at JPMorgan.

The DJIA came within striking distance of 12,000 today. There was no major economic data and it is another melt-up rally. The news comes despite rising rate trends in China and India and despite the trends of inflation. It also comes in light of a Moscow, Russia airport bombing that killed more than 30 people.

Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow Jones 11,980.52 +108.68 (0.92%)
S&P 500 1,290.84 +7.49 (0.58%)
Nasdaq 2,717.55 +28.01 (1.04%)

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

If you didn't take some profits off the table in June or October with customer relationship software giant Salesforce.com (CRM), which I first wrote about on June 18, 2009 at a price of $40.16, it really makes sense to do so now.

Salesforce.com's stock continues rise almost as fast as a helium balloon: the stock has raced ahead this winter -- testing psychological resistance at $150, before pulling back slightly.

I'd also raise the sell/stop loss to $96 from $84 at this stage.

CRM's rise is being driven by strong demand for its products/services, with revenue likely to vault 25-30% in 2011, after a 21% surge in 2010.

The Tulip mania in Holland went on for seven years, supporting John Maynard Keynes commentary that "the market can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent." This is one of my favorite stock market quotes, so forgive me if I repeat it too often. Although, I'm not sure that is possible when I watch Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) stock price continue to soar.

The stock was up almost 5% yesterday, on a down day, closing at $187.88, with a P/E of 70.90 -- that's 71 years times earnings folks!

Is that sensible? Investors are saying who cares? And the analysts are supporting them. The fact that analysts have a horrible track record and that the stock is highly speculative has become irrelevant.

While Salesforce.com (CRM) is the clear leader in cloud computing, the company still has serious competitive threats. In fact, the company is making some major changes -- with the goal of going to the next-level. Salesforce.com calls this "cloud 2.0."

A key to this strategy is acquisitions. Last year, Salesforce.com made six deals (they included Jigsaw, Sitemaster, Activa, Live Chat, Heroku and Etacts). And with a huge market cap and cash pile, Salesforce.com is certainly positioned nicely for more transactions in 2011.

With a market cap of nearly $20 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio at a nose bleed level of 267, it certainly makes a lot of sense for Salesforce.com (CRM) to get aggressive with acquisitions. The company is sitting on a growing pile of cash and it needs to maintain its competitive edge – which gets increasingly difficult.

So this week, Saleforce.com agreed to purchase Heroku for $212 million. Haven't heard of them? Well, in the programming community, it is a popular company. It is a cloud-computing provider for Ruby, which allows for the creation of web applications. This is done by creating a platform-as-a-service infrastructure.

Salesforce.com (CRM) is certainly enjoying a positive post-earnings reaction Friday. After unveiling its third-quarter results last night, the stock sailed to a new all-time high as a slew of brokerage firms rushed to raise their price targets on CRM.

Specifically, CRM swung to a third-quarter profit of $21.1 million, or 15 cents per share, while revenue increased 30% to $429.1 million. Excluding items, CRM earned 32 cents per share. By contrast, analysts were looking for a quarterly profit of just 31 cents per share on revenue of $410.5 million.

If you took some profits off the table in June, with customer relationship software giant Salesforce.com (CRM), which I first wrote about on June 18, 2009, at a price of $40.16, you most likely notched a better than 80% on those shares.

Since that time, the stock has raced ahead, powering through key psychological resistance at $100 like a BMW 7-Series in third gear, then vaulting to $124, before pulling back to about $108.

Analyst Upgrades

• Piper Jaffray upgraded Salesforce.com (CRM) to overweight from neutral, citing valuation following the recent sell-off and strong business trends. The firm has a $115 price target for shares.
• Keefe Bruyette upgraded M&T Bank (MTB) to market perform from underperform on valuation after AIB sold its stake in the company. The firm has a $72 price target for shares.
• Jefferies upgraded OGE Energy (OGE) to buy from hold following the announcement that ArcLight will purchase 9.9% of OGE's interest in Enogex for $183M and believes this deal highlights the hidden value associated with Enogex. The firm raised its price target to $51.50 from $43.
• Thomas & Betts (TNB) was upgraded to outperform from perform at Oppenheimer.
• Bayer (BAYRY) was upgraded to buy from neutral at UBS.
• Texas Roadhouse (TXRH) was upgraded to outperform from neutral at Baird.