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Salesforce.com Inc. easily surpassed $ 20 billion in revenue for the first time in its recently ended fiscal year, so now is the time to set a new goal of $ 25 billion.
Salesforce CRM,
reported fourth-quarter profit of $ 267 million, or 28 cents a share on Thursday, following a loss of $ 248 million in the same quarter a year ago. After adjusting for stock-based compensation and other factors, the cloud software company reported earnings of $ 1.04 per share. Revenue rose to $ 5.82 billion from $ 4.85 billion a year earlier, resulting in total annual revenue of over $ 20 billion, a key focus of the co -founder and general manager Marc Benioff.
Analysts on average expected Salesforce to report adjusted earnings of 75 cents per share on revenue of $ 5.68 billion, according to FactSet. Stocks fell more than 4% in after-hours trading after the results were announced, potentially due to earnings forecasts for the coming year that were a hair below analyst estimates.
Beyond Benioff’s $ 20 billion goal, 2020 has been a year of transformation for Salesforce. The company’s stock was added to the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA,
and he agreed to acquire Slack Technologies Inc. WORK,
to better challenge heavy software from Microsoft Corp. MSFT,
a deal expected to close in Salesforce’s fiscal second quarter. Salesforce stock reacted positively to events, rising 27.7% over the past 12 months, while the S&P 500 SPX index,
gained 25.5%.
Learn More: Salesforce’s Slack Agreement Creates Greater Threat for Microsoft
“We could never have predicted a year ago what to expect, which makes me incredibly proud of the way we have pivoted our business to adapt to this pandemic world,” Benioff said in the Thursday announcement.
For the coming year, Benioff has a new revenue target in mind: $ 25 billion. Salesforce projected 2021 adjusted earnings of $ 3.39 to $ 3.41 per share on sales of $ 25.65 billion to $ 25.75 billion, which was slightly lower than analysts’ estimates for bottom line . As the report approaches, analysts on average expected adjusted profit of $ 3.49 for 2021, according to FactSet, on revenue of $ 25.42 billion.
The company’s first-quarter forecast, however, beat analysts’ expectations. Salesforce forecasts adjusted first-quarter profit of 88 cents to 89 cents per share on sales of $ 5.875 billion to $ 5.885 billion, while analysts on average expected adjusted earnings of 75 cents per share on a revenue of $ 5.72 billion.
Slack also had a solid end to its fiscal year, reporting a record net addition of paying customers in preliminary results Thursday afternoon. The corporate communications company reported the addition of 14,000 new paying customers, bringing its total to 156,000, and billing of $ 359.9 million, easily exceeding analysts’ estimates of $ 324.5 million. . The company expects to release its fourth quarter results on March 4.
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