Shares of Salesforce (NYSE: CRM) are up over 5% in pre-open trading Friday after the company reported stronger-than-expected results for its first quarter.

The company made a profit of $1.21 per share on an adjusted basis to smash $0.08 per share expected by analysts. Sales in the quarter jumped 23% year-over-year to $5.96 billion, which is again higher than the $5.89 billion expected by the Street.

“We had the best first quarter in our company’s history,” said Marc Benioff, Chair & CEO, Salesforce.

“We believe our Customer 360 platform is proving to be the most relevant technology for companies accelerating out of the pandemic. With incredible momentum throughout our core business, we’re raising our revenue guidance for this fiscal year by $250 million to approximately $26 billion and non-GAAP operating margin to 18 percent. We’re on our path to reach $50 billion in revenue in FY26.”

Looking forward, the company guided from $0.91 per share to $0.92 per share in adjusted Q2 profits in sales of $6.22 billion to $6.23 billion. This is again higher than the $0.86 per share on sales of $6.15 billion.

For the full fiscal year, the company is modeling for $3.79 to $3.81 in adjusted earnings per share on sales of $25.9 billion to $26.0 billion in revenue. This compares to analysts’ expectations of $3.43 per share and $25.76 billion in revenue. The company also raised the full-year operating margin to 18% from 17.7% to reflect higher revenue guidance.

“Our decision to raise fiscal 2022 revenue is reflective of our Q1 performance and our confidence in our ability to execute for the rest of the year,” said Amy Weaver, CFO at Salesforce.

Morgan Stanley analyst Keith Weiss praised the “impressive progress” the company made in Q1 and raised the price target on the Overweight-rated stock to $285.00 per share from prior $270.00. The analyst upgraded CRM last week amid efforts to rebuild investor confidence and close the valuation gap versus peers.

“Salesforce remains one of our best secularly positioned names given enterprise IT spend prioritized towards digital transformation. Following the underperformance in shares post the Slack deal announcement, we see a favorable risk/reward and an attractive valuation for a leading franchise. While we continue to see the $28 billion price tag for Slack as high, we are more constructive on the asset after two quarters of improving new customer and billings growth at Slack. Further, we see guidance for flat FY22 operating margin, despite Slack dilution, as sign of better cost efficiencies and opportunity for margin expansion once M&A headwinds fade,” the analyst wrote in a note.

Similarly, Mizuho’s Gregg Moskowitz raised the price target to $290.00 per share from $270.00 per share after witnessing a strong beginning to a new fiscal year. The analyst also reiterated CRM as one of the top picks in this sector.

“CRM reported a better than expected F1Q, led by Current RPO growth of 23% Y/Y (+20% CC) that was significantly above our and the Street's 19% reported forecast. Moreover, total RPO, revenue, and EPS were all nicely above expectations, and the F2Q/FY22 guide was very healthy. Looking ahead, we believe CRM is very well-situated to help its vast customer base manage revenue and process optimization via digital transformation. We also continue to believe the co. is poised to begin outperforming in C2H, or perhaps a bit sooner in light of these results,” the analyst said in today's note.