"We had a great start to the year ... we could not have asked for more," Chief Executive Marc Benioff said on a conference call with analysts on Thursday.

"Last year we became the first enterprise cloud computing company to achieve $2 billion in revenue, and we're now poised to deliver the first ever $3 billion year in fiscal 2013," he said.

Salesforce.com, a pioneer in cloud computing, raised its outlook for its fiscal 2013 revenue to $2.97 billion to $3 billion, up 31-32 percent from the year ago period. It previously forecast full year revenue in a range of $2.92 billion to $2.95 billion.

It said it expects adjusted earnings per share to be in a range of $1.60 to $1.63 for the full year from a previous outlook of $1.58 to $1.62 per share.

Analysts were expecting fiscal 2013 targets of $2.95 billion in revenue and earnings per share of $1.61.

Salesforce.com also announced its expectations for the current second quarter, saying it sees revenue at up 33 percent at a range of $724 million to $728 million year-on-year.

Earnings per share excluding items is expected to be $0.38 to $0.39, the company said.

Salesforce.com started out more than a decade ago developing software to help sales people manage their contacts, and gradually added more features.

It has since added programs for handling other tasks including managing customer service, analyzing market data and fostering collaboration among employees.

The company reported a profit, excluding certain items, of 37 cents per share, in its fiscal first quarter, which ended April 30, beating the 34-cent average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Including stock-based compensation expenses and other items, the net loss for the quarter was $0.14, Salesforce.com said.

Revenue rose 38 percent from a year earlier period to $695 million. Analysts had expected $678.2 million in revenue.

Salesforce.com shares rose to $143.59 in after-hours trading after closing at $133.80 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Analysts at brokerage firm Canaccord had predicted a jump in the company's stock price because of a positive intermediate term view of Salesforce.com's fundamentals. Canaccord has a buy rating on the stock and has a one year price target of $180.