Updated 1:10 pm EDT
Salesforce (CRM) -) shares edged higher in premarket trading ahead of the cloud-focused software group's second-quarter earnings report, slated for after the closing bell.
Analysts expect Salesforce to post a bottom line of $1.90 a share for the three months ended in July, up 60% from a year earlier, with revenue rising 10.5% to around $8.53 billion.
The figures won't reflect price increases brought by Salesforce earlier this summer -- the first in seven years -- and took effect Aug. 1 and will see costs for its cloud and marketing tools rise by an average of 9%.
The move followed the slowest rate of top-line growth in more than 10 years last quarter -- when revenue was up 11% to $8.25 billion -- thanks in part to slowing client demand for cloud-based software offerings,
The added revenue generation is also likely to fuel some of Salesforce's AI investments, to which the group has devoted $20 billion in research and development over the past seven years.
"(Salesforce) is dedicated to leveraging artificial intelligence to help businesses improve customer experiences, increase efficiency, and make smarter decisions," said Crispidea analyst Ankit Sanwaria, who carries an overweight rating and $240 price target on the San Francisco customer-relationship-management-software giant's stock. "AI is the future of Salesforce and it is committed to investing in this technology."
Salesforce shares were marked 1.05% higher in early Wednesday trading to change hands at $214.18 each, extending the stock's year-to-date gain to around 59%.
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