What happened
Shares of salesforce.com (CRM 1.55%) have dipped today, down by 5% as of 3:20 p.m. EST, after the company reported fiscal fourth-quarter earnings. The results topped expectations, but Salesforce's profit forecast for next fiscal year disappointed investors. The company remains optimistic about its pending acquisition of Slack (WORK +0.00%).
So what
Revenue in the fiscal fourth quarter came in at $5.82 billion, beating the Street's expectation of $5.68 billion in sales. That resulted in adjusted earnings per share of $1.04, also crushing the consensus estimate of $0.75 per share in adjusted profits. The customer relationship management (CRM) technology leader now has remaining performance obligation (RPO), which represents business that has already been contracted, of $36.1 billion.
Image source: Salesforce.
"We never could have predicted a year ago what was in store, which makes me incredibly proud of how well we pivoted our company to adapt to this pandemic world," CEO Marc Benioff said in a statement. "We had a record quarter and year by innovating more and faster than ever, enabling our customers to be successful from anywhere, and becoming more relevant and strategic than ever."
Now what
Guidance for the fiscal first quarter calls for revenue of approximately $5.88 billion, compared to the $5.72 billion in sales that analysts are modeling for. Adjusted earnings per share are expected to be $0.88 to $0.89, above the current analyst consensus estimate of $0.76 per share.
"[Slack is] really an enabler of success from anywhere," Benioff commented on the conference call with analysts. "And once our merger is approved, we're going to build Slack into more of these products that we have used today and conceptualize and make our customers even more productive."
