Salesforce.com Inc. shares rose in extended trading Tuesday after the cloud-based customer-relationship management company’s quarterly results topped Wall Street estimates, as did its revenue outlook, but earnings forecasts fell a little short.
Salesforce
CRM,
shares gained 4% after hours, following a 0.8% decline in the regular session to close at $208.89.
The company reported a fiscal fourth-quarter loss of $28 million, or 3 cents a share, versus income of $267 million, or 28 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Adjusted earnings were 84 cents a share, compared with $1.04 a share in the year-ago period.
Revenue rose to $7.33 billion from $5.82 billion in the year-ago quarter.
Analysts surveyed by FactSet had estimated earnings of 75 cents a share on revenue of $7.24 billion, based Salesforce’s forecast of 72 cents to 73 cents a share on revenue of $7.22 billion to $7.23 billion.
“As we continue to see tremendous demand from customers, we’re raising our FY23 revenue guidance to $32.1 billion at the high end of range, with non-GAAP operating margin of 20%, and operating cash flow growth of 22% year over year,” said Marc Benioff, Salesforce chairman and co-chief executive, in a statement.
Salesforce expects adjusted first-quarter earnings of 93 cents to 94 cents a share on revenue of $7.37 billion to $7.38 billion, while analysts had forecast $1 a share on revenue of $7.27 billion.
For fiscal 2023, Salesforce forecasts adjusted earnings of $4.62 to $4.64 a share on revenue of $32 billion to $32.1 billion, with analysts expecting $4.76 a share on revenue of $31.78 billion.
Over the past 12 months, Salesforce shares have declined 4%, while the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF
IGV,
has declined 8%, the S&P 500 index
SPX,
has gained 10%, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index
COMP,
has slid 0.4%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
— which counts Salesforce as a component — has gained 6%.
