Salesforce shares surged nearly 12% on Thursday, enjoying their biggest single-day rally since August 2020, after the cloud software vendor issued earnings and guidance that trounced analysts’ estimates.
The results show the company, led by co-founder Marc Benioff, is making concessions to activist investors who have built stakes in the business and have raised concerns lately about the company’s revenue and income performance.
After the close of regular trading on Wednesday, Salesforce reported fiscal fourth-quarter adjusted earnings of $1.68 per share, 23% higher than the consensus among analysts polled by Refinitiv. Its earnings forecast for the 2024 fiscal year was 22% higher than expected.
In addition, finance chief Amy Weaver told analysts on a conference call that Salesforce sees a 27% adjusted operating margin for the 2024 fiscal year, meaning the company is two years ahead of schedule with its profitability improvement.
Alongside the earnings report, Salesforce said it’s working with Bain on a …