SAN FRANCISCO (AP) _ Salesforce.com Inc. (CRM) on Tuesday reported a fiscal third-quarter loss of $109 million, after reporting a profit in the same period a year earlier.

The San Francisco-based company said it had a loss of 12 cents per share. Earnings, adjusted for one-time gains and costs, came to 75 cents per share.

The results topped Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of 15 analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 66 cents per share.

The customer-management software developer posted revenue of $4.51 billion in the period, also beating Street forecasts. Twelve analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $4.44 billion.

For the current quarter ending in January, Salesforce.com expects its per-share earnings to range from 54 cents to 55 cents.

The company said it expects revenue in the range of $4.74 billion to $4.75 billion for the fiscal fourth quarter. Analysts surveyed by Zacks had expected revenue of $4.73 billion.

Salesforce.com expects full-year earnings in the range of $2.89 to $2.90 per share, with revenue ranging from $16.99 billion to $17 billion.

Salesforce.com shares have increased 18% since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index has risen 23%. In the final minutes of trading on Tuesday, shares hit $161.57, an increase of 12% in the last 12 months.

This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on CRM at https://www.zacks.com/ap/CRM

Automated Insights, source Associated Press News