Salesforce stock jumps as it raises profit forecast, CFO says company will be more ‘measured’ in hiring

Salesforce shares rose 7% in extended trading on Tuesday after the enterprise-software maker reported fiscal first-quarter results that surpassed analysts’ expectations and lifted its full-year earnings guidance.

Here’s how the company did:

• Earnings: 98 cents per share, adjusted, vs. 94 cents per share as expected by analysts, according to Refinitiv.
• Revenue: $7.41 billion, vs. $7.38 billion as expected by analysts, according to Refinitiv.

Salesforce’s revenue rose 24% year over year in the quarter, which ended April 30, according to a statement. Net income fell 94% to $28 million. The company saw lower gains on investments in the quarter, and sales and marketing expenses mounted.

Salesforce said revenue from its Service Cloud for handling customer-service inquiries generated $1.76 billion in revenue, up almost 17%. Revenue from the core Sales Cloud product for managing business opportunities contributed $1.63 billion, up about 18%.

“We’re just not seeing material impact on the broader economic world that all of you are in,” Marc Benioff, Salesforce’s co-founder and co-CEO, said on a conference call with analysts.

In the quarter Salesforce said its Sales Cloud, Service Cloud and Marketing Cloud integrations for Slack were launching in beta. Salesforce acquired Slack for $27.1 billion in July. The company also announced the launch of Safety Cloud for organizing in-person events during the quarter, and its legal name changed to Salesforce Inc. from Salesforce.com Inc. Salesforce was founded in 1999, in the midst of the dot-com craze.

The dot-com bubble burst nearly brought Salesforce to an end, Benioff said.

“In 2001 I think it really impacted us, we almost lost our business, because we were on monthly contracts, we didn’t have the right cash flow structure, investors just wouldn’t give us any money — and so we made a lot of changes then, and it really strengthened our business and made us more durable overtime,” he said.

In early March, after Russia invaded Ukraine, Salesforce said it began to end relationships with customers it has accumulated in Russia through resellers and other channels.

Salesforce said it had $13.64 billion in unearned revenue, which primarily comes from subscription billings. The figure was slightly below the StreetAccount consensus of $13.76 billion.

With respect to guidance, Salesforce said it sees fiscal second-quarter earnings of $1.01 to $1.02 per share on an adjusted basis and revenue from $7.69 billion to $7.70 billion. Analysts polled by Refinitiv had expected $1.14 in adjusted earnings per share on $7.77 billion in revenue.

Salesforce lowered its revenue guidance for the full 2023 fiscal year while boosting its profit view. It now sees $4.74 to $4.76 per share in adjusted earnings and $31.7 billion to $31.8 billion in revenue. Analysts polled by Refinitiv had expected $4.65 in adjusted earnings per share and $32.06 billion in revenue. Previously Salesforce had expected adjusted earnings of $4.62 to $4.64 per share on $32.0 billion to $32.1 billion in revenue for the full year.

Notwithstanding the after-hours move, Salesforce stock has moved about 36% lower since the start of the year, while the broader S&P 500 index has declined 13% over the same period.

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