Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Issues Quarterly Earnings Results

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.13 by $0.75, FiscalAI reports. The business had revenue of $11.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.05 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 15.38% and a net margin of 17.96%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.58 earnings per share. Salesforce updated its FY 2027 guidance to 14.060-14.120 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance to 3.250-3.270 EPS.

Here are the key takeaways from Salesforce’s conference call:

• Salesforce posted a strong Q1 with revenue of $11.13 billion, up 13% year over year, while non-GAAP operating margin expanded to 34.8% and operating cash flow reached $6.7 billion.
• Agentforce momentum remained a major growth driver, with ARR surpassing $1 billion, 28.6 trillion tokens processed, and 3.8 billion agentic work units generated in the quarter.
• Customer adoption is broadening across key products, highlighted by 98 deals over $1 million in new ACV and more than 50% of Agentforce and Data 360 bookings coming from existing customers expanding usage.
• Management raised FY2027 revenue guidance to $45.9 billion-$46.2 billion and expects second-half organic revenue reacceleration, while noting ongoing pressure in Marketing, Commerce, and Tableau.
• Slack and headless access are becoming strategic growth levers, with Slack nearly half of million-plus wins, Slack AWUs up nearly 350% quarter over quarter, and Headless 360 positioned to expand Salesforce usage into more workflows and surfaces.

Salesforce Stock Performance

Shares of CRM opened at $177.86 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The company has a market capitalization of $145.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.77, a PEG ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.14. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $181.23 and a 200 day moving average of $211.16. Salesforce has a 12 month low of $163.52 and a 12 month high of $278.81.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Salesforce news, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 2,570 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $194.62 per share, with a total value of $500,173.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 13,689 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,664,153.18. The trade was a 23.11% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Laura Alber purchased 2,571 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 19th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $194.58 per share, with a total value of $500,265.18. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 9,530 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,854,347.40. The trade was a 36.94% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Company insiders own 3.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Salesforce

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Fred Alger Management LLC increased its position in shares of Salesforce by 0.3% during the third quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 14,943 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $3,548,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. Synergy Financial Group LTD increased its position in Salesforce by 2.4% in the third quarter. Synergy Financial Group LTD now owns 2,035 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $482,000 after buying an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. Triumph Capital Management increased its position in Salesforce by 4.2% in the fourth quarter. Triumph Capital Management now owns 1,448 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $383,000 after buying an additional 59 shares during the last quarter. ANB Bank increased its position in Salesforce by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. ANB Bank now owns 5,755 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $1,525,000 after buying an additional 59 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sunbelt Securities Inc. increased its position in Salesforce by 1.6% in the third quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 3,923 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $930,000 after buying an additional 62 shares during the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Trending Headlines about Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce beat expectations on both earnings and revenue, posting $3.88 EPS on $11.13 billion in revenue, while revenue grew 13% year over year. The company also lifted full-year profit guidance, which supports the case that its core business is still healthy. Reuters article
• Positive Sentiment: AI-related momentum remains a bright spot, with Salesforce saying Agentforce annualized revenue passed $1 billion and that AI-powered software adoption is helping growth. Investors may see this as evidence that Salesforce can monetize AI rather than just be disrupted by it. CNBC article
• Positive Sentiment: Management said it plans to keep investing in customer-facing growth and buy back shares, which could help support the stock if execution improves. CNBC article
• Neutral Sentiment: Despite the beat, Salesforce’s second-quarter revenue guidance was only around in line to slightly below expectations, which helps explain why the stock reaction has been muted rather than strongly positive. Investopedia article
• Negative Sentiment: Investors are still focused on the bigger AI disruption risk, and commentary from recent coverage suggests the market remains uncertain about whether Salesforce can defend its software franchise as AI reshapes enterprise buying patterns. Proactive Investors article

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CRM has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. BTIG Research restated a “buy” rating and issued a $255.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a report on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Salesforce from $365.00 to $320.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $375.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a report on Tuesday, February 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $281.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, TD Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Friday, May 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have assigned a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Salesforce presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $272.73.

Salesforce announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Monday, March 16th that allows the company to buyback $25.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the CRM provider to repurchase up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

About Salesforce

Salesforce, founded in 1999 and headquartered in San Francisco, is a global provider of cloud-based software focused on customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise applications. The company popularized the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model for CRM and has built a broad portfolio of products designed to help organizations manage sales, service, marketing, commerce and analytics through a unified, cloud-first platform.

Core offerings include Sales Cloud for sales automation, Service Cloud for customer support, Marketing Cloud for digital marketing and engagement, and Commerce Cloud for e-commerce.