Shares of Salesforce (CRM) rallied more than 7% Thursday after the cloud-based software company boosted its full-year sales forecast as the pandemic-led shift to remote work continues to fuel demand for its products. The stock is up about 24% so far this year.
The company now expects fiscal full-year 2022 sales between $26.25 billion and $26.35 billion, up from its previous forecast of $26.2 billion to $26.3 billion.
Salesforce also raised its revenue outlook for fiscal year 2023 as it bets that the rise of automation and artificial intelligence will continue to support its bottom line.
The company is forecasting revenue of $31.65 billion to $31.80 billion, topping analysts’ estimates of $31.47 billion.
The bullish new outlook coincides with Salesforce’s annual Dreamforce conference in San Francisco, which was dramatically scaled back this year due to the pandemic. The event, which usually attracts roughly 200,000 people, was reduced to about 1,000 in-person attendees with the majority of the audience joining virtually.
Speaking from the conference, Salesforce’s Chief Operating Officer, Bret Taylor, told Yahoo Finance Live that the company’s recent $27.7 billion acquisition of the workplace messaging app Slack is already benefiting the company and its customers.
“We think Slack can be every company’s digital HQ [headquarters] and we’ve tried to integrate it deeply across our platform,” he said.
In addition to adding hundreds of millions of dollars to its annual revenue, Taylor said Slack is enhancing Salesforce’s ability to help companies operate a more remote workforce efficiently and cut back on corporate travel.
“If I started a company today, I wouldn’t start with my physical headquarters,” said Taylor. “I would start with my digital headquarters.”
Taylor said Salesforce has re-opened half of its offices globally, and while some employees are choosing to come back to the physical office, Taylor stressed that “a digital, work from anywhere,” mentality is top of mind for the company.
A recent Salesforce sponsored report by IDC found that Salesforce and its ecosystem will be responsible for creating 9.3 million new jobs and $1.6 trillion in additional revenue for its partners.
Taylor said “digital” will be the driving force behind that job creation.
“Consumer goods companies are going direct-to-consumer, supply chains are going digital and every company is developing direct, trusted, digital relationships with their customers,” he said, “and it’s creating this unparalleled demand for digital technologies.”
Alexis Christoforous is an anchor at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @AlexisTVNews.
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