Salesforce surges on Q3 earnings beat amid 'green shoots' of cloud demand rebound. Salesforce lifted its full-year profit forecast amid what it called 'green shoots' in demand improvement from big buyers of its cloud-focused software.
Salesforce (NYSE: CRM) - shares surged in early Thursday trading after it posted better-than-expected third quarter earnings, as well as a full-year profit boost, amid what it described as improving demand for its cloud-focused client software offerings.
Salesforce said earnings for the three months ending in October, its fiscal third quarter rose 51% from last year to $2.11 per share, just ahead of Street forecasts of $2.06 per share, with revenues rising 11.2% to $8.72 billion, just ahead of analysts' estimates of an $8.715 billion top line.
Looking into the final months of its fiscal year, Salesforce said it sees revenues in the region of $34.75 billion and $34.8 billion, an 11% improvement from last year's levels that was largely in-line with its prior forecasts. Current quarter revenues were forecast between $9.18 billion to $9.23 billion.
Full-year profits, Salesforce said, will likely improve to between $8.18 and $8.19 per share, up 13 cents at the higher end of its prior forecast, with adjusted operating margins expanding to between 30% and 33%.
Salesforce shares, a Dow component, were marked 9.2% higher in pre-market trading to indicate an opening bell price of $251.12, extending its year-to-date advance to just under 90%.
Price Momentum CRM is trading near the top of its 52-week range and above its 200-day simple moving average.
What does this mean? Investors have been pushing the share price higher, and the stock still appears to have upward momentum. This is a positive sign for the stock's future value.