Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Announces Earnings Results

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday. The CRM provider reported $5.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.27 by $2.63, FiscalAI reports. The business had revenue of $11.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.33 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 18.72% and a net margin of 18.73%.Salesforce’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.91 EPS. Salesforce updated its FY 2027 guidance to 16.670-16.710 EPS and its Q3 2027 guidance to 3.420-3.440 EPS.

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

• Salesforce reported a record quarter, with Q2 revenue of $11.35 billion, up 11% year over year and above the high end of guidance. CRPO rose 14% in constant currency to $33.5 billion, driven by strength in Slack, Agentforce, and Data 360.
• AI adoption continued to accelerate, with Agentforce ARR reaching $1.5 billion, 2,000 additional paying customers entering production, and agentic workloads reaching 3.2 billion AWUs, up 97% quarter over quarter. Management said 50% of Agentforce bookings came from customers replenishing consumed credits.
• The company raised FY2027 revenue guidance by approximately $300 million in constant currency to $46.1 billion-$46.4 billion, including $100 million of organic growth and an expected $200 million contribution from the planned Contentful and Fin acquisitions. Management also reiterated expectations for organic revenue reacceleration in the second half.
• Profitability and capital returns were strong, with $1.1 billion in free cash flow, up 81% year over year, and continued execution of the $25 billion accelerated share repurchase program. Non-GAAP operating margin was 34.1%, while management maintained full-year guidance of approximately 34.3%.
• Management acknowledged continued volatility in licensed revenue and a $100 million foreign-exchange headwind to the fiscal-year outlook. Despite the revenue increase, full-year operating and free-cash-flow growth is expected at only approximately 4%-5%, and GAAP operating margin guidance was updated to about 20.1%.

Salesforce Trading Up 0.2%

Shares of NYSE CRM traded up $0.32 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $206.01. The stock had a trading volume of 14,577,571 shares, compared to its average volume of 13,649,027. Salesforce has a 52-week low of $146.32 and a 52-week high of $269.11. The firm has a market cap of $168.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.84, a P/E/G ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.16. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $176.11 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $181.49. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Investors of record on Thursday, June 11th were paid a $0.44 dividend. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 11th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 20.37%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Salesforce

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Compound Planning Inc. increased its position in Salesforce by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Compound Planning Inc. now owns 17,781 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $4,710,000 after purchasing an additional 135 shares during the period. Birchwood Financial Partners Inc. bought a new position in shares of Salesforce during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Corient Private Wealth LLC boosted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 84.9% during the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 773,553 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $204,922,000 after purchasing an additional 355,108 shares in the last quarter. Strive Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in Salesforce during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $158,000. Finally, Blue Sparrow LLC DE bought a new position in Salesforce in the fourth quarter worth approximately $18,862,000. 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Key Stories Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce reported quarterly revenue of approximately $11.35 billion, slightly above the $11.33 billion analyst consensus, while adjusted EPS of $5.90 exceeded estimates of $3.27. Results also included a $2.6 billion gain on strategic investments, largely reflecting the increased value of Salesforce’s Anthropic stake. Salesforce stock jumps on AI growth and Anthropic investment gain
• Positive Sentiment: Management raised fiscal 2027 guidance to $46.1 billion-$46.4 billion in revenue and $16.67-$16.71 in EPS. Third-quarter EPS guidance of $3.42-$3.44 is also well above the $3.16 consensus, while revenue guidance of $11.4 billion-$11.5 billion is broadly in line with expectations. Salesforce raises annual revenue forecasts on AI product momentum
• Positive Sentiment: The upgraded outlook reflects stronger organic growth and expected acquisitions, with Salesforce citing momentum from its AI-powered autonomous agents. The company also expanded its Anthropic relationship through “Claudeforce,” integrating Claude with Salesforce data, workflows, governance and 37 prebuilt sales skills. Salesforce and Anthropic announce Claudeforce
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce is also benefiting from additional AI talent, as a senior OpenAI go-to-market executive reportedly returns to the company. The move may support execution, but its financial impact is uncertain. OpenAI executive returns to Salesforce
• Negative Sentiment: Investors should note that part of the substantial EPS beat came from investment gains rather than recurring operating performance. Software-sector volatility and uncertainty about the pace of AI-agent adoption remain risks after CRM’s strong rebound from its 52-week low.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have issued reports on CRM shares. Truist Financial downgraded shares of Salesforce from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. BTIG Research reissued a “buy” rating and set a $255.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a report on Monday. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered Salesforce from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Tuesday, July 21st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised Salesforce from a “buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have issued a Buy rating, seventeen have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $248.72.

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.