Salesforce.com shares are gaining ground in response to better-than-expected financial results for the company's fiscal second quarter, ended July 31.

In late trading, $Salesforce.com Inc(CRM.US)$ was up 1.9%, to $265.75.

For the quarter, Salesforce posted revenue of $6.34 billion, up 23% from a year ago, or 21% adjusted for currency. The cloud-based enterprise-software provider had projected revenue of $6.22 billion to $6.23 billion, while the Street had been forecasting $6.25 billion. It was the company's first quarter with more than $6 billion in sales.

Non-GAAP profits were $1.48 a share, which includes a gain of 43 cents from mark-to-market accounting of the company's portfolio of strategic investments. Management's guidance had been for 91 to 92 cents a share, while the Street had projected 92 cents. After adjusting for the mark-to-market gain, the result implies an earnings beat of more than 10 cents a share.

Under generally accepted accounting principles, profits were 56 cents a share.

Remaining performance obligations -- a measure of work contracted for but not yet delivered -- totaled $36.2 billion at the quarter's end, up 18% from a year earlier. Current remaining performance obligations, covering work due in the next 12 months, came in at $18.7 billion, up 23%.

"With companies and governments around the world continuing to accelerate their digital transformations, we delivered our fifth phenomenal quarter in a row," CEO Marc Benioff said in a statement. "Salesforce has never seen better execution or greater momentum."

For the October quarter, Salesforce projects revenue of $6.78 billion to $6.79 billion, with non-GAAP profits of 91 to 92 cents a share. The consensus call had been for $6.67 billion of revenue and 81 cents in per-share earnings.

For the full fiscal year ending January 2022, Salesforce now sees revenue of between $26.2 billion and $26.3 billion, with non-GAAP profits of $4.36 to $4.38 a share, above its previous forecast of revenue between $25.9 billion and $26 billion and profits of $3.79 to $3.81 a share. The Street had been projecting $26 billion and $3.82 a share.

In an interview with , Salesforce's president and chief operating officer, Bret Taylor, said the strong growth in the quarter "reflects how relevant our products are right now, with demand from customers for what we do...digital transformation starts and ends with your customers." He says that customers are coming to terms with the fact that the pandemic isn't going away, and are adjusting their systems accordingly.

"We're seeing great growth across the board, for sales, services, marketing and commerce software." he said.

Taylor said that of the roughly $300 million increase in full-year revenue guidance, about $40 million reflects the acquisition of Slack, while the rest will come from organic growth in the business. As for the sharp uptick in the profit outlook, he said the company is "executing better than we ever have." He says the company has been "over-performing on revenue," while staff are traveling less and management is maintaining discipline on costs.

Meanwhile, Taylor says the company's annual Dreamforce conference, which in the past has drawn as many as 200,000 people to San Francisco, will be primarily virtual when it takes place next month. Hundreds of people will be on site for the keynote presentations, but most people will participate online.