(Reuters) -Salesforce Inc on Wednesday forecast first-quarter revenue above Wall Street estimates as pandemic-induced migration to hybrid-work models boosts demand, sending the cloud-based software provider’s shares up 10% after markets.
The company also said it will increase its share repurchase program to $20 billion.
Salesforce’s newly launched products as well as the Customer 360 platform and messaging app Slack are helping it to win customers and drive sales in the face of a potential economic slowdown.
To drive down costs, Salesforce in January said it planned to close some offices and cut jobs by 10% after pandemic hiring left it with a bloated workforce.
Revenue for the fourth quarter ended Jan. 31 was $8.38 billion, compared with analysts’ average expectation of $7.99 billion, according to Refinitiv IBES data.
Salesforce forecast revenue for the first quarter between $8.16 billion and $8.18 billion, compared with analysts’ average estimate of $8.06 billion, according to Refinitiv IBES data.
(Reporting by Tiyashi Datta in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
