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 Shares of the world's largest maker of online sales software rose
7.2 percent to $67 in after-hours trading.
Salesforce, seen as a barometer for the cloud-computing sector, has
benefited as more businesses choose cheaper and easier
cloud-software services. Salesforce's earnings were of particular
interest to investors in the technology sector because the quarter
goes through January, a month when other technology companies have
said they started to see signs of weakness.
Salesforce painted a brighter picture, highlighting new or expanded
deals with customers such as Charles Schwab, the financial-services
company, and consumer-goods maker Unilever.
"Now, we read the same newspapers as everybody else," said Chief
Financial Officer Mark Hawkins on a call with analysts. "We aren't
seeing an economic impact."
Part of the reason, executives said on the call, was that Salesforce
often skipped over the information technology department, an area
where flat spending is expected this year, and sold to other
departments.
Some technology companies that have flagged potential weakness this
year sell infrastructure equipment or other products that typically
fall under an IT budget.
In tough times, analysts said, businesses would be less inclined to
cut services that provide a direct impact to revenue, something
upheld by some Salesforce customers.
"We are able to dramatically see an increase in the number of
prospects we can reach and the quality of those prospects," said
Justin Hart, vice president, member acquisition, at Surf Air, a
California-based subscription airline service. He said Salesforce's
software has helped the company expand by a "factor of 10" compared
with the spreadsheet based system it replaced.
Eric Scollard, global sales head for IT analytics company ExtraHop,
made similar comments. "It helps us understand which campaigns drive
more sales," he said.
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The company raised its full-year revenue forecast to $8.08
billion-$8.12 billion, from $8.0 billon-$8.1 billion, and said
forecast adjusted profit of 99 cents to $1.01 per share.
Analysts on average were expecting a profit of 99 cents per share on
revenue of $8.08 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
In the fourth quarter ended Jan. 31, revenue from sales cloud - a
suite of software that allows companies to track leads, forecast and
collaborate around sales opportunities - rose 12.3 percent to $708.9
million.
The net loss narrowed to $25.5 million, or 4 cents per share, from
$65.8 million, or 10 cents per share, a year earlier.
Excluding special items, the company earned 19 cents per share, in
line with the average analyst estimate.
Revenue rose 25.3 percent to $1.81 billion, above analysts' estimate
of $1.79 billion.
(Reporting by Kshitiz Goliya in Bengaluru and Sarah McBride in San
Francisco; Editing by Maju Samuel, Bernard Orr and Leslie Adler)
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