Here's proof that Salesforce is likely to have another blow out second half this year despite weak earnings

Salesforce shares dropped by as much as 8% after reporting its quarterly earnings on Wednesday.

Investors were spooked by weak billings, an important number that shows future revenue growth, and lower-than-expected third quarter revenue guidance.

Still, Salesforce showed a lot of confidence in its ability to turn things around over the next 6 months, raising its full year guidance for the third time this year.

And if history means anything, Salesforce is poised to have another blow out second half this year.

According to market research firm PiperJaffray, Salesforce has historically shown stronger returns in the second half of the year, far outpacing the performance of the NASDAQ and S&P 500 over the past 5 years, as seen in the chart below:

That's in stark contrast to its typical performance in the first half of the year:

PiperJaffray wrote that Salesforce's upcoming Dreamforce annual conference and the typical enterprise sales cycle, which tends to close more towards the end of the year, will serve as catalysts for this trend. And given Salesforce's weak earnings last quarter, PiperJaffray anticipates this trend to be even greater this year.

"We believe investors should use periods of weakness to buy secular growth stories which we believe Salesforce continues to be. We believe Salesforce sits at the nexus of a sea change in Enterprise Software where fundamentally the customer relationship becomes the product for end customers," it wrote.