Skip to main content

Salesforce shares soar 13% on strong growth despite the pandemic

Our mission to help you navigate the new normal is fueled by subscribers. To enjoy unlimited access to our journalism, subscribe today.

Salesforce shares jumped nearly 13% in after-hours trading on Tuesday after the business software firm reported solid earnings amid the coronavirus pandemic. 

The company’s shares rose $28.48 to $244.48 following the earnings report. Earlier in the day, during regular trading, they had gained $7.59, or 3.6%.

Salesforce said it had $5.15 billion in second-quarter sales, a 29% year-over-year jump. The result beat the $4.9 billion that analysts had projected.

Signaling that it expects the good times to continue, Salesforce raised its sales guidance for its fiscal 2021 from $20 billion to between $20.7 billion and $20.8 billion.

The company also had $2.6 billion in second-quarter profits, driven primarily by an accounting change that created tax benefits.

The strong results come at a time during which many businesses are cutting back on IT spending because of the economic uncertainty caused by COVID-19. But cloud software providers, whose products generally run in third-party data centers, and therefore require less upfront costs and less day-to-day maintenance, are doing relatively well.

In a conference call with investors on Tuesday, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff gushed with optimism. But he described the strong results, achieved during the pandemic, as “a moment that is very much humbling and bittersweet.”

“We know that we are a light and we have to continue to be that light, especially during these difficult times,” Benioff said.

Even before the earnings call, Salesforce has been on a winning streak. Recently, the S&P Dow Jones Indices announced that the company would join the Dow Jones Industrial Average, replacing industrial stalwart Exxon—a sort of seal of approval that puts Salesforce in lofty company.

During the call, Benioff took potshots at competitors that sell both consumer and enterprise technology. Unlike those rivals, which he didn’t name, Salesforce isn’t “all over the field” and is instead focused on its core product, which sales teams use to manage their sales leads.

Benioff hinted that Salesforce is unlikely to go on an acquisition spree. When asked by an analysts whether he believes M&A activity will pick up, in general, he said, “We’re not in a good M&A environment” because of the high valuations given to tech companies.

Salesforce was “very lucky” to have acquired enterprise software companies MuleSoft in 2018 and Tableau in 2019 because today “we wouldn’t be able to buy them,” Benioff said.

“Maybe things can change,” Benioff said about acquisitions. “This isn’t really part of our plan right now.” 

More must-read tech coverage from Fortune:



from Fortune https://ift.tt/31sYxt2
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Photo finish: Crashing sales force Olympus to sell iconic camera business

Sometimes, the vicissitudes of capitalism force companies to exit the businesses for which they’re best known. Olympus, once a leading light in the photography industry, is now joining that list. On Wednesday, the company said it planned to quit its 84-year-old camera business. The imaging giant, known for its once-pervasive digital cameras, agreed to sell off the declining unit by year’s end. Japan Industrial Partners, a private equity firm best known for buying Sony’s struggling Vaio computer line in 2014, agreed to purchase the business. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. A glance at Olympus’s financial statements provides all the rationale for the divestiture; as at rival manufacturers, camera sales have plummeted over the past decade. For the fiscal year ended March 31, Olympus’s camera unit declined 10% versus the year prior to  ¥43.6 billion, or $407 million. The unit’s sales have collapsed by three-quarters from a decade ago, when the company brought in ¥175 billion, or $
Post a Comment
Read more

WHO says common steroids can slash death risk for the sickest coronavirus patients

Our mission to help you navigate the new normal is fueled by subscribers. To enjoy unlimited access to our journalism,  subscribe today . An old drug can learn new tricks during the coronavirus pandemic. That’s the main takeaway from the World Health Organization (WHO) in a new analysis of corticosteroids—a class of drugs which have existed for dozens of years and are far cheaper than new, experimental COVID treatments in development—suggesting that drugs like dexamethasone can slash the chances of COVID-19 related deaths by as much as 35% in the sickest patients. The WHO analysis of coronavirus drugs encompassed seven separate studies. And while an analysis of this sort—what’s called a “meta-analysis”—isn’t as rigorous as other types of trials like a randomized controlled study, the data are compelling. Corticosteroids have a very different action mechanism from many of the other coronavirus drugs in development. COVID-19 is a peculiar disease. Some who have been infected may be
Post a Comment
Read more