Earnings reports fueled gains for shares of Salesforce and Snowflake this week, the Nasdaq closed at a new high Friday, and there’s more news for Apple, Microsoft, Zoom and other tech stocks.
The Nasdaq and S&P 500 closed at record highs Friday after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the central bank gradually could begin pulling back on stimulus this year because the economy has met the Fed’s criteria on progress in inflation and employment.
Salesforce (CRM) – Get salesforce.com, inc. Report stock climbed 4% this week after the company reported a jump in quarterly sales. Analysts at Piper Sandler raised their price target on the business-software stock to $280 a share following the results.
During an Executive Decision segment on his Mad Money TV show, Jim Cramer spoke with Salesforce Chairman and CEO Marc Benioff. Benioff said Salesforce had another terrific quarter that included a 23% rise in revenue and saw the addition of new customers like Ikea and insurance giant Geico. Salesforce also expanded its gross margins and saw solid cash flow improvements according to Benioff.
Benioff told Cramer that new clients like IKEA are undergoing digital transformations that require tools like sales, service, commerce, and marketing clouds, all of which will soon be integrated with Slack (WORK) – Get Slack Technologies, Inc. Class A Report to ease communications.
Cramer told Action Alerts PLUS senior analyst Jeff Marks that it was another inflection quarter for Salesforce as the cloud software company integrated its Slack acquisition to its broader business.
“What I really loved about Salesforce is that he [Benioff] talked about unicorns…he mentioned all of the different companies within the company that is doing so well. They’ve all lined up — Slack has lined up with Zoom (ZM) – Get Zoom Video Communications (ZM) Report, which has lined up with Snowflake (SNOW) – Get SNOWFLAKE, INC. Report to create a seamless enterprise augmenter… this is more augment than replace. Salesforce is at the heart of it,” said Cramer.
“It’s the largest venture capitalist in the valley. And he [Benioff] is one of the reasons why Robinhood (HOOD) – Get Robinhood Report is able to pull itself together and retain customers…he is a real mentor to Vladimir Tenev,” Cramer added.
Cramer also had strong opinions on Facebook’s (FB) – Get Facebook, Inc. Class A Report Horizon Workrooms, a newly-revealed virtual reality-powered experience aimed at allowing better collaboration among remote workforces.
Cramer called Horizon a ‘primitive’ version of Nvidia’s metaverse. Jim Cramer said if you’re really looking for dominance in the metaverse, turn your attention to Nvidia (NVDA) – Get NVIDIA Corporation Report.
“The way we work is changing. More people are working remotely, more people want flexible work options, and more people are re-thinking what it means to be in an office,” Facebook said in a statement.
The reveal followed CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s touting of the metaverse as a key part of the future of Facebook. The company is clearly entering its next frontier and, last month, Cramer explained what Metaverse means for Facebook.
Here is a breakdown list of the technology and FAANG stocks to watch right now based on their performance over the past week:
Apple
Apple (AAPL) – Get Apple Inc. (AAPL) Report said that it would halve, to 15%, its commission on first-year in-app subscriptions for eligible news publishers who are part of the Apple News service. The change comes after massive criticism of Apple’s current 30% fee from customers, app developers and regulators. “Apple today introduced the News Partner Program, a new slate of initiatives to expand Apple’s work with and support for journalism,” the company said.
In July, Cramer explained how he approaches Apple stock differently from fellow tech giant Nvidia, the semiconductor maker.
TheStreet Quant Ratings rates Apple as a Buy with a rating score of A.
Snowflake
Snowflake stock jumped Thursday after the data-analytics software company reported mixed second-quarter results and analysts raised their price targets. The company posted a net loss of 64 cents a share on revenue of $272.2 million. Analysts polled by FactSet were expecting a net loss of 15 cents a share on revenue of $256.1 million.
Last week, Snowflake saw its biggest intraday decline since March after Cleveland Research in a report said signings growth slowed from the first quarter, while consumption growth was likely similar, at best, to first-quarter levels.
TheStreet Quant Ratings has no rating for Snowflake.
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Salesforce
Salesforce (CRM) – Get salesforce.com, inc….
