Salesforce Stock Soars on Strong Earnings and AI-Driven Growth Potential

Up Approximately 8,000% the Past 20 Years, This Stock Just Shot Higher on Increased Guidance. Can the Momentum Continue? | The Motley Fool

In early December 2004, Salesforce (CRM 0.17%) was trading at a split-adjusted price of under $4. After the stock climbed following its most recent strong earnings report to over $360, the stock is now up more than 90 times in the past 20 years as of this writing. Looking at more recent returns, the stock is up about 35% year to date. Salesforce is the granddaddy of software-as-as-service (SaaS) companies, helping revolutionize the software industry. Today, it is looking toward artificial intelligence (AI) as its next big growth driver. Let's take a closer look at its most recent results to see if the stock's strong momentum can continue. While Salesforce has been one of the best-performing software companies of the past two decades, it has also matured, and its growth has slowed. It is looking for its AI-powered chatbot platform, Agentforce, to help drive growth moving forward. For its fiscal third quarter, Salesforce's revenue rose 8% year over year to $9.44 billion, which was well ahead of its prior guidance for revenue of between $9.31 billion and $9.36 billion. Subscription and support revenue jumped by 9% to $8.88 billion. While its core business was solid, with growth similar to Q2, growth from prior acquisitions saw a meaningful deceleration in the quarter. Mulesoft revenue only edged up 1%, while Tableau increased 5% and Slack revenue jumped 8%. By comparison, Mulesoft revenue grew 27% in Q1 and 13% in Q4; Tableau's revenue increased by 21% in Q1 and 11% in Q2; and Slack revenue climbed 17% in both Q1 and Q2. The one big bright spot in the quarter, though, was Agentforce, which launched in October. The company closed 200 deals for the autonomous AI agents in the quarter despite the recent launch, and the company said it was seeing incredible adoption rates. It also noted that it has a pipeline of thousands of potential deals for Agentforce. Notably, Agentforce is a usage-based product that costs $2 per conversation. This model could allow the company to see huge upside as more customers adopt the product and overall usage increases over time with its customers. Salesforce's current remaining-performance obligations (cRPOs) rose 10% year over year to $26.4 billion. This is a common metric used by SaaS companies to help measure future revenue growth over the next year, although eventually, Agentforce's consumption model could see this metric as less indicative of overall future growth. Looking ahead, Salesforce increased its revenue guidance for the full year and lowered its EPS forecast. It now expects revenue of between $37.8 billion to $38.0 billion, representing growth of 8% to 9%, with adjusted EPS of between $9.98 to $10.03. Here is a chart of Salesforce's guidance changes throughout the year. For Q4, the company is projecting revenue of between $9.90 billion and $10.10 billion, representing growth of 7% to 9%. It is looking for an adjusted EPS of between $2.57 to $2.62. From a valuation perspective, Salesforce looks like it trades at a reasonable valuation based on its current growth. It has a forward price-to-sales multiple of about 8.5 based on next year's analyst estimates, while its forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio is about 33, and its price/earnings-to-growth (PEG) ratio is 0.84. A PEG ratio under 1 is typically considered undervalued, and growth stocks will often have PEG ratios well above 1. However, for the stock to keep its current momentum, it will need to start to see its revenue growth start to accelerate. That isn't expected to happen next quarter, but the company is starting to plant the seeds of future growth with its new Agentforce platform. Previously, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has talked about having 1 billion AI agents deployed by the end of fiscal 2026, which would be a $2 billion opportunity based on its pricing structure. There could also be some halo effect, where Agentforce helps increase sales and upsells with its other core cloud platforms. That's the start of solid growth that can help the company return to the teens in revenue growth. Given this opportunity, it looks like the momentum for this SaaS leader can continue moving forward. As such, I think it is a solid option for investors to consider at current levels.

Salesforce jumps as latest AI tools set to accelerate demand

Dec 4 (Reuters) - Salesforce (CRM.N), opens new tab shares jumped 12.5% in premarket trading on Wednesday, after the customer relationship management software maker topped quarterly sales estimates and provided an upbeat forecast for its newly launched AI integrated products. The company is banking on Agentforce to reenergize its growth, as tech firms look to tap into rising demand for AI agents that can autonomously complete tasks. "F2026 (CY25) is shaping up to be an important transitional year as CRM lays the groundwork to bring AI agents to the enterprise masses with new pricing and packaging offerings(Agentforce, Foundations, Data Cloud, etc.)," said analysts at Piper Sandler. On a post-earnings call, executives said even though Agentforce was made generally available in late October, it delivered 200 deals. They also projected a strong pipeline of deals. "We remain very bullish on Agentforce even despite the long road to monetization and believe we have presented the broadest and deepest possible array of proprietary Agentforce work," J.P. Morgan analysts said. Salesforce is set to add more than $40 billion to its market valuation of $316.85 billion if gains hold. At least 20 analysts raised their price targets on the stock, according to LSEG data. The stock has gained about 26% this year through the last close and the new median price target of $380 represents an about 15% upside. The company now expects fiscal year 2025 revenue between $37.8 billion and $38 billion, compared with its prior forecast range of $37.7 billion to $38 billion. Third-quarter revenue rose 8% to $9.44 billion, beating the average analyst estimate of $9.35 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG. "We like the setup heading into FY'26 given reasonable Street expectations, positive progress made around the company's AI strategy, and potential upside as front-office spending comes back," Baird Equity Research analysts said. Reporting by Harshita Mary Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab Suggested Topics:TechnologyTechnology

Salesforce jumps as latest AI tools set to accelerate demand

(Reuters) - Salesforce shares jumped 12.5% in premarket trading on Wednesday, after the customer relationship management software maker topped quarterly sales estimates and provided an upbeat forecast for its newly launched AI integrated products. The company is banking on Agentforce to reenergize its growth, as tech firms look to tap into rising demand for AI agents that can autonomously complete tasks. "F2026 (CY25) is shaping up to be an important transitional year as CRM lays the groundwork to bring AI agents to the enterprise masses with new pricing and packaging offerings(Agentforce, Foundations, Data Cloud, etc.)," said analysts at Piper Sandler. On a post-earnings call, executives said even though Agentforce was made generally available in late October, it delivered 200 deals. They also projected a strong pipeline of deals. "We remain very bullish on Agentforce even despite the long road to monetization and believe we have presented the broadest and deepest possible array of proprietary Agentforce work," J.P. Morgan analysts said. Salesforce is set to add more than $40 billion to its market valuation of $316.85 billion if gains hold. At least 20 analysts raised their price targets on the stock, according to LSEG data. The stock has gained about 26% this year through the last close and the new median price target of $380 represents an about 15% upside. The company now expects fiscal year 2025 revenue between $37.8 billion and $38 billion, compared with its prior forecast range of $37.7 billion to $38 billion. Third-quarter revenue rose 8% to $9.44 billion, beating the average analyst estimate of $9.35 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG. "We like the setup heading into FY'26 given reasonable Street expectations, positive progress made around the company's AI strategy, and potential upside as front-office spending comes back," Baird Equity Research analysts said. (Reporting by Harshita Mary Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)

Salesforce stock jumps over 9% after strong fiscal 2025 guidance

Salesforce (CRM+9.02%) shares jumped by over 9% to around $361 per share during midday trading on Wednesday after the company's fiscal third-quarter results surpassed expectations. The cloud software company reported revenues of $9.44 billion for the third quarter of fiscal year 2025 -- up 8% from the previous year. Its revenue included subscription and support revenue, which was up 9% year over year to $8.88 billion. Salesforce's analysts' estimates compiled by FactSet (FDS+0.14%) expected revenue of $9.37 billion. The company reported earnings per share of $2.41 but was expected to report $2.44. "We delivered another quarter of exceptional financial performance across revenue, margin, cash flow, and cRPO," Salesforce chief executive Marc Benioff said in a statement. "Agentforce, our complete AI system for enterprises built into the Salesforce Platform, is at the heart of a groundbreaking transformation. The rise of autonomous AI agents is revolutionizing global labor, reshaping how industries operate and scale. " In November, Benioff told the Wall Street Journal's (NWSA-0.37%) "The Future of Everything" podcast that he thinks "we all got drunk on the ChatGPT Kool-Aid" and that he hopes people are using AI "to improve humanity and making things better." Salesforce launched its Agentforce suite of AI agents that can handle service, sales, marketing, and commerce tasks in September. The company slightly raised its guidance for fiscal year 2025 to between $37.8 billion and $38 billion from its previous guidance of between $37.7 billion and $38 billion. The company set fiscal fourth quarter guidance between $9.9 billion and $10.1 billion. Analysts expect $10 billion for the next quarter, according to FactSet. Gains by Salesforce and other tech stocks drove the Dow Jones Industrial Average up nearly 200 points on Wednesday morning.

Salesforce shares jump on earnings beat and strong AI deals pipeline

Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, appears on a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 18, 2024. Shares of Salesforce popped more than 8% Wednesday, a day after the company reported third-quarter results that exceeded analysts' estimates for revenue and guidance and showed strong promise for its artificial intelligence offerings. Salesforce's revenue grew 8% year over year to $9.44 billion in its third quarter, up from the $9.34 billion expected by LSEG. The company's net income was $1.5 billion in the quarter, up 25% from $1.2 billion a year ago. Salesforce raised revenue guidance to between $37.8 billion and $38 billion for its fiscal 2025, up slightly from $37.7 billion to $38 billion it had previously reported. The new range puts the midpoint for Salesforce's fiscal 2025 revenue guidance at $37.9 billion, ahead of analysts' expectations. Analysts at Morgan Stanley reiterated their overweight rating on the stock, stating in a note that "the force is strong with this one." The analysts said they are encouraged by Salesforce's strong start with its artificial intelligence agent, Agentforce, as it closed more than 200 deals during the quarter with "thousands" more in the pipeline. Salesforce's Agentforce is an example of so-called AI agent technology. Several companies believe these advanced chatbots represent the next logical step from ChatGPT and other related tools powered by large language models. Goldman Sachs analysts raised their Salesforce price target from $360 to $400 and reiterated their buy rating on the stock. The analysts said the company's Data Cloud and Agentforce are driving "notable pipeline generation," and they're starting to contribute to the fundamentals of the business. "We believe that Salesforce remains poised to be one of the most strategic application software companies in the $1tn+ TAM cloud industry and is on a path to $50bn in revenue," the analysts said in a Tuesday note. Similarly, analysts at Bank of America said Salesforce's third-quarter results suggest it is "leading the way" with Agentforce, and they reiterated their buy rating on the stock. The analysts raised their price target to $440 from $390. The analysts said the emerging AI agent product cycle is not derailing Salesforce's margin expansion, and that a meaningful pipeline exists in the service and sales sectors. "Commentary suggests no contribution for Agentforce is assumed in the guide, suggesting early Agentforce deal closure could provide a source of upside," they wrote Wednesday.

Analysts Are Bullish on Salesforce After Early Agentforce Interest

Shares of Salesforce jumped Wednesday and have gained nearly 38% this year. Salesforce (CRM) shares are up after the company raised its full-year outlook Tuesday, and analysts are offering increasingly bullish price targets. Stifel maintained its "outperform" rating and raised its price target to $425 from $390. That's a 17% premium even after Salesforce shares rose nearly 9% intraday Wednesday. The stock is up nearly 38% in 2024. The firm called Salesforce "the best way to play AI" due to its multi-cloud customer base and its ability to "drive market penetration" with its Customer 360 customer relationship management platform. Then there's Agentforce, Salesforce's suite of autonomous AI agents made generally available on October 25. Agentforce was included in 200 deals in the quarter, "underscoring healthy early interest," analysts at Bank of America said. The bank upped its price target to $440 from $390. Salesforce has "a combined market share of only 15% and a formidable competitive moat," BofA added. "[W]e believe a long runway exists for Salesforce to continue growing."

Salesforce Stock Climbs After Company Lifts Full-Year Sales, Profit Outlook

Salesforce (CRM) improved its full-year outlook and reported third-quarter results that beat the Street's expectations, sending shares higher in extended trading Tuesday. The cloud software company saw revenue grow 8% year-over-year to $9.44 billion, above the analyst consensus compiled by Visible Alpha. Earnings per share (EPS) were $1.58, up from $1.25 a year earlier and higher than analysts' expectations. Salesforce bumped up the low end of its fiscal 2025 revenue guidance to between $37.8 billion and $38 billion from a prior range of $37 billion to $38 billion. Its EPS projection was lifted to $6.15 to $6.20, up from $6.05 to $6.13. Wall Street is looking for full-year revenue of $37,87 billion and diluted EPS of $6.16, according to Visible Alpha. The earnings beat comes as Salesforce's stock price has gained roughly 30% since the company's Dreamforce event in September and the unveiling of its Agentforce suite of autonomous AI agents. "Agentforce, our complete AI system for enterprises built into the Salesforce Platform, is at the heart of a groundbreaking transformation," CEO Marc Benioff said in a statement. "The rise of autonomous AI agents is revolutionizing global labor, reshaping how industries operate and scale." Shares of Salesforce rose 8% in recent after-hours trading. They are up some 27% in 2024 through Tuesday's close.

Salesforce Analysts Raise Forecasts After Q3 Earnings: 'Leading The Way In Agentic AI Cycle' - Salesforce (NYSE:CRM)

Salesforce's Q3 cRPO of $26.4 billion beat consensus of $26.1 billion.The company closed 200+ Agentforce deals in the third quarter. Salesforce Inc CRM shares were climbing in on Wednesday, despite the company reporting an earnings miss in the third quarter. The company reported its results amid an exciting earnings season. Here are some key analyst takeaways. Stifel On Salesforce Analyst J. Parker Lane reiterated a Buy rating while raising the price target from $390 to $425. Salesforce reported current RPOs (remaining performance obligations) of $26.4 billion, representing 10% year-on-year growth and beating consensus estimate of $26.1 billion, Lane said in a note. The company's cRPO growth remains in double-digits for the second consecutive quarter, despite Agentforce and Data Cloud not contributing meaningfully as of now, he added. "With the story now centered around the Agentforce/AI opportunity, we believe management's disclosure of 200 Agentforce deals (GA late in the quarter) and a significant pipeline served as solid initial proof-points in the company's ability to capture AI workloads and its positioning relative to enterprise competitors," the analyst wrote. Salesforce is "the best way to play AI within our coverage universe," he further stated. RBC Capital Markets On Salesforce Analyst Rishi Jaluria maintained an Outperform rating while lifting the price target from $300 to $420. Salesforce's third-quarter results were "solid," sending shares higher by 11% in the after-hours session on Tuesday, Jaluria said. "Subscription revenue growth stabilized, and cRPO growth was solid, remaining in double-digits," he added. The company raised the midpoint of its fourth-quarter guidance for total revenue by around $50 million, while stating that its acquisition of Own closed at the end of the quarter, the analyst stated. "While Agentforce updates were encouraging, we question if expectations are getting ahead of NTM (next twelve months) reality," he further wrote. JPMorgan On Salesforce Analyst Mark Murphy reaffirmed an Overweight rating while raising the price target from $340 to $380. Salesforce's earnings slightly missed expectations due to strategic investments, Murphy said. Total revenue came in at $9,444 million, beating Street estimates of $9,351 million, he added. Although the company's fourth-quarter revenue guidance came in below consensus, this was "overshadowed by successful attainment or slight upside across other metrics" in the third quarter, including cRPO, margins, and cash flows, the analyst stated. Salesforce was expected to be "ultra-bullish" about Agentforce during its earnings call and the company "actually surpassed that expectation," he further wrote. BMO Capital Markets On Salesforce Analyst Keith Bachman reiterated an Outperform rating while lifting the price target from $385 to $425. Salesforce delivered strong quarterly results and guided to cRPO in-line with estimates, Bachman said. The company closed 200 paying Agentforce deals post general availability (GA) in the last week of the quarter, he added. "In addition, management stated that 25% of the F100 have adopted Data Cloud, though we believe a very small percent of Salesforce installed base has adopted to date," the analyst wrote. He stated, however, that the adoption of Data Cloud could be "a source of friction" in the adoption of Agentforce. Check out other analyst stock ratings. Oppenheimer On Salesforce Analyst Brian Schwartz maintained an Outperform rating while raising the price target from $385 to $415. Salesforce achieved operating margins of 33.1%, higher than the consensus by 80 basis points (bps), Schwartz said. Pro forma earnings of $2.41 per share came in three cents below the consensus, driven by strategic investments, excluding which the figure would have come in at $2.59 per share, he added. This was another quarter of double-digit cRPO billings growth and "this positive trend looks durable," as software spending trends are likely to normalize as macro uncertainties ease and the "rising importance of IT and AI in driving growth and efficiencies with the enterprise," the analyst wrote. "This development positions CRM to reaccelerate top-line revenue growth, as soon as F2Q:26," he further stated. Needham On Salesforce Analyst Scott Berg reaffirmed a Buy rating while lifting the price target from $345 to $375. Salesforce reported total revenue growth of 8.3% year-on-year, with subscription revenue growth of 9.1%, "driven by resilience in core Clouds," Berg said. Professional services revenue contracted by 2.4%, but came in above expectations, he added. "While not a material contributor to financial results yet, Salesforce noted that the company closed over 200 Agentforce deals during 3Q in the one week the product was available during the quarter, with notable brands utilizing it already," the analyst wrote. Management raised its revenue guidance for the full year to a range of $37.8 billion to $38.0 billion, from its prior projection of $37.7 billion to $38.0 billion, he added. Piper Sandler On Salesforce Analyst Brent Bracelin reiterated an Overweight rating while raising the price target from $325 to $395. Salesforce's revenue growth slowed to 7%-8% on "more of the same" challenges that it faced through the year, including "macro pressures, internal budgetary battles, AI experimentation and evaluation, and longer sales cycles," Bracelin said. "F2026 is shaping up to be an important transitional year for CRM as it executes on laying the groundwork to bring AI agents to the enterprise masses with new pricing and packaging offerings (Agentforce, Foundations, Data Cloud, etc.) that could better position the company for a F2027 rebound," the analyst wrote. There is downside risk to the current consensus estimate for revenue growth of 9% for that year, he added. BofA Securities On Salesforce Analyst Brad Sills maintained a Buy rating while raising the price target from $390 to $440. The third-quarter results suggest that Salesforce is "leading the way in agentic AI cycle with Agentforce," Sills said. Management pipeline commentary indicated "meaningful customer interest" in the weeks after the tool's release in October, he added. The company raised its full-year margin guidance by 10 basis points, which indicates that "this emerging product cycle is not derailing margin expansion," the analyst stated. "Ongoing acceleration in the core from agents and multi-cloud strength is likely to more than offset softness in non-core businesses," he further wrote. Guggenheim Securities On Salesforce Analyst John DiFucci maintained a Neutral rating on the stock. Salesforce exceeded consensus estimates, including cRPO, "which benefited from early renewals more than from strong new bookings," DiFucci said. The company's fourth-quarter guidance came in below the Street, "despite getting about 1% of growth from acquisitions completed in November," he added. Street expectations of 9% revenue growth in fiscal 2026 appears "optimistic," unless the company makes more acquisitions, the analyst stated. CRM Price Action: Shares of Salesforce had risen by 8.19% to $358.01 at the time of publication on Wednesday. Read More: * Salesforce Q3 Earnings Preview: Analyst Says 'Transitional Year' Coming, Recommends To Add Shares On Pullbacks Photo: Photo Gonzo via Shutterstock Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

Salesforce Posts Strong Revenue on Promise of Boost From AI

(Bloomberg) -- Salesforce Inc. reported quarterly revenue that topped analysts' estimates, boosting investor hopes that the company's much-hyped strategy for artificial intelligence products will lift financial results. Sales increased 8.3% to $9.44 billion in the period ended Oct. 31, the company said Tuesday in a statement. Analysts, on average, estimated $9.35 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Adjusted operating margin, a measure of profitability, was 33.1%, compared with an average estimate of 32.2% Salesforce, the top seller of customer relations management software, pivoted its AI strategy this year to focus on tools called agents, which are designed to complete tasks such as customer support or sales development without human supervision. The San Francisco-based company launched its product, dubbed Agentforce, in October, with initial pricing of about $2 per agent conversation. Chief Executive Officer Marc Benioff said last month that he was so confident in Agentforce that Salesforce would add 1,000 employees to sell it. That planned hiring surge follows almost two years of costs cuts at the company, including job reductions, as Benioff worked to control expenses and improve profitability after pressure from activist investors. The company has signed a "good number" of deals related to Agentforce, Executive Vice President Mike Spencer said in an interview after the earnings release. Still, these deals are largely initial roll-outs and will take time to show up in the company's results, he added. The stock has been volatile this year, dipping to a low of $218.01 on May 30 after the company projected the slowest sales growth in its history. Since then, the shares have rebounded more than 50% on optimism for Salesforce's new AI strategy. "Agentforce has overtaken the CRM narrative by storm," wrote Tyler Radke, an analyst at Citigroup, ahead of the results. The shares gained about 6% in extended trading after closing at $331.43 in New York. The higher-than-expected profit margin is the standout number in results, said Anurag Rana, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. Salesforce said fiscal third-quarter profit, excluding some items, was $2.41 a share. Analysts, on average, estimated $2.44. The earnings were affected by losses within Salesforce Ventures, the company's investment arm, Spencer said. Revenue will be $9.9 billion to $10.1 billion in the current quarter ending in January, in line with analysts' estimates. Current remaining performance obligation, a measure of booked sales, will expand about 9%, compared with a 9.2% increase expected by analysts. Sales growth in Salesforce's large acquired divisions -- Slack, Mulesoft, and Tableau -- dipped in the fiscal third quarter, the company said in a presentation. Mulesoft revenue expanded 1% in constant currency, compared with a 13% jump in the preceding quarter. The business unit containing marketing and e-commerce software expanded 8% in constant currency during the quarter, just ahead of Wall Street estimates. The company's Commerce Cloud product has seen increased competition from Canadian software vendor Shopify Inc., which says it has taken hundreds of Salesforce clients. (Updates with comments from executive in the fifth paragraph.)

Salesforce shares can rally more than 30% thanks to latest AI push, Bank of America says

Salesforce shares have more upside in store as the software giant rolls out its latest AI push, according to Bank of America. The bank lifted its price target on the stock to $440 from $390, reflecting 33% upside from Tuesday's close, after the company topped third-quarter revenue estimates and issued upbeat fourth-quarter guidance. Shares surged more than 13% on the results and looked poised to add to a 26% year-to-date gain. "Q3 results suggest that the company is leading the way in agentic AI cycle with Agentforce," wrote analyst Brad Sills. "Commentary on pipeline suggests meaningful customer interest in the weeks following October release. Also, this emerging product cycle is not derailing margin expansion, with a net 10 bps raise for FY25." Looking ahead, he views a "healthy pipeline" of agent deals as capable of powering ongoing upside into the fourth quarter, while margin findings signal that the company is undertaking a "balanced growth philosophy." Agentforce refers to the company's new AI-powered chatbot platform. Other major Wall Street shops also boosted their price objectives in the wake of the results, with JPMorgan moving to a $380 target. Goldman Sachs analyst Kash Rangan lifted his target to $400 a share, saying that a "stabilizing macro set[s] [the] stage for improving [near-term] growth profile." "We reiterate our conviction in Salesforce's ability to deliver $15-16 FCF/Share in CY26 as investors gain confidence in the sustainability of topline growth, supported by Salesforce's AI strategy across a broad customer base (~135k) and strength of its data-driven value proposition," he said. The company also looks well situated to become one of the "most strategic application software companies" and hit $50 billion in revenues, he added. "With room for upside in both forward revenue and margin expectations, against a reasonable multiple, we remain OW this GenAI winner," wrote Morgan Stanley's Keith Weiss as he lifted his target to $405 from $330 a share. CRM YTD mountain Shares this year Still, some analysts remain more cautious on the stock. Wells Fargo analyst Michael Turrin reiterated his equal weight rating while lifting his price target to $345 from $330 a share. "CRM's 3Q results were enough to keep attention on Agentforce," he wrote. "However, continue to expect [Agentforce Focus] contribution further out than appreciated & hard to underwrite Data Cloud + pricing & packaging driving 10%+ growth in the interim."

Salesforce's 'hard pivot' to AI agents pays off with an 11% stock surge. Now comes the hard part

In September, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff told Fortune that his company was making a "hard pivot" to its new AI agent platform Agentforce. Thousands of customers would attend workshops at the business software maker's annual conference to learn how to use the technology, which lets users quickly build AI-powered agents that can make decisions and act on information including automating customer service tasks. And he set a goal of tens of thousands of customers using the product in their operations by January 2025. That may seem like a tall order, but at least for now, Salesforce's investors have faith. After the company reported its quarterly earnings yesterday (which included 80 mentions of Agentforce during a call with Wall Street analysts) its shares climbed 11% to a record high. Revenue in the company's third fiscal quarter grew 8% year over year to $9.44 billion. Its net income was $1.5 billion, up 25% from $1.2 billion a year ago. However, investor enthusiasm will only last so long, and Wall Street will want proof that Salesforce's big spending on its AI efforts -- the company has not disclosed a specific total -- will pay off over the long-term. That means Salesforce must hustle to actually sell Agentforce to meet its goals. It's a critical test for the company as it tries to compete in what has become an all-important market for AI products. Every major software company, from Big Tech behemoths like Microsoft and Google to large players like SAP and ServiceNow, is racing to cash in on what is expected to be a huge future payoff. During the call with analysts, Benioff said Salesforce had already "delivered 200 deals" on Agentforce, which became generally available on October 24, adding that "our pipeline is incredible for future transactions." He also confirmed that the company was hiring 1,000 to 2,000 more salespeople to help spread the Agentforce gospel. "We not only maximized our productivity of our current Salesforce over the last couple of years, but we just need to grow and expand to reflect this incredible distribution opportunity," he said. But how Agentforce will fare with customers remains to be seen. Salesforce is optimistic about demand for the product, but Benioff admitted Agentforce was not a "material contributor" to the just-ended quarter's so-called cRPO. The metric is a key indicator of customer uptake, reflecting future revenue under contract that has yet to be recognized. Agentforce's underwhelming impact isn't expected to change for the current quarter. That's because the technology is still dwarfed by Salesforce's other products that rake in $37 billion in annual revenue. "We're still at the very beginning of this journey," Benioff said. Yet, Benioff was already touting the next stage of the journey on the earnings call on Tuesday, with a planned launch of what he called Agentforce 2.0 on December 17. Presumably, all of those new salespeople will be out, well, in force.

Salesforce stock price is surging today. Here are 3 reasons why

Subscribe to the Compass newsletter.Fast Company's trending stories delivered to you daily Investors love to see quarterly revenue growth, especially in the high single-digits or more, and it appears that Salesforce's growth in Q3 is at least a contributing factor in the company's rising stock price this morning. Yet there is perhaps a more significant one, too. Right now, Wall Street really cares about AI, seeing it as a key growth point for most companies in the years ahead. And when it comes to artificial intelligence, Salesforce gave investors a reason to feel good. The company revealed that its AI chatbot offering, called Agentforce, is seeing strong demand. While AI chatbots like ChatGPT try to offer as broad a range of knowledge for the everyperson as possible, many feel that AI chatbots that are specifically focused on one area of expertise -- say, customer service or sales management -- are what businesses will be searching for as they seek to leverage artificial intelligence in their workflows.

Salesforce reports mixed third quarter results, stock jumps on upbeat forecast - SiliconANGLE

Salesforce reports mixed third quarter results, stock jumps on upbeat forecast Shares in Salesforce Inc. were up over 9% in alter trading today after the cloud-based software company impressed investors with an upbeat outlook despite reporting mixed results in the fiscal 2025 third quarter. For the quarter that ended on Oct. 31, Salesforce reported adjusted earnings of $2.41, up from $2.11 in the same quarter of fiscal 2024, on revenue of $9.44 billion, up 8% year-over-year. Earnings fell short of the $2.44 expected by analysts, while revenue came in ahead of an expected $9.35 billion. Salesforce saw subscription and support revenue in the quarter of $8.879 billion, up 9% year-over-year, with an operating cash flow of $1.98 billion, up 29% year-over-year. As of the end of October, Salesforce had a current remaining performance obligation of $26.4 billion, up 10% year-over-year. Business highlights in the quarter included Salesforce acquiring cloud data specialist Own Co. for $1.9 billion on Sept. 5. The deal, expected to close in January, will see Salesforce integrate capabilities from Own into its software stack to provide customers with a more comprehensive set of tools for data and loss protection. Salesforce launched the Agentforce Partner Network on Sept. 17. The network allows users to quickly get access to connections to external data sources, specialized third-party actions and unique AI skills and deploy partner-built agents. On Sept. 24, Salesforce announced that it had entered an agreement to acquire Israeli unstructured data process startup Zoomin Software Ltd. at an estimated price of $450 million. Salesforce plans to integrate Zoomin's technology into its Agentforce platform to allow customers to use organizational data to inform an array of agentic AI experiences. Forward to October and on Oct. 15, Salesforce brought its AI technology to the insurance industry with the launch of a new platform called Financial Services Cloud for Insurance Brokerages. The offering, built on top of Salesforce's flagship customer relationship management platform, is designed to help account managers and others at insurance brokerages deepen their relationships with existing clients. On Oct. 29, right at the tail end of the fiscal quarter, Salesforce announced that Agentforce, its suite of tools for building autonomous artificial intelligence agents to augment work for enterprise employees worldwide, was now generally available. "We delivered another quarter of exceptional financial performance across revenue, margin, cash flow, and cRPO," Marc Benioff, chairman and chief executive officer of Salesforce, said in the company's earnings release. "Agentforce, our complete AI system for enterprises built into the Salesforce Platform, is at the heart of a groundbreaking transformation." "The rise of autonomous AI agents is revolutionizing global labor, reshaping how industries operate and scale," Benioff added. "With Agentforce, we're not just witnessing the future - we're leading it, unleashing a new era of digital labor for every business and every industry." Salesforce expects revenue of $9.9 billion to $10.1 billion in its fiscal fourth quarter and revenue of $37.8 billion to $38 billion for the full fiscal year. The full-year outlook was up slightly from the company's previous forecast. David Schmaier, president and chief product officer of Salesforce, spoke with theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media's livestream studio, in September, where he discussed how the Salesforce Data Cloud is powering AI-driven customer experiences.

These Analysts Boost Their Forecasts On Salesforce After Q3 Results - Salesforce (NYSE:CRM)

Salesforce Inc. CRM posted downbeat earnings for its third quarter, while sales topped estimates. Salesforce reported third-quarter revenue of $9.44 billion, beating the consensus estimate of $9.35 billion. The enterprise cloud solutions company reported adjusted earnings of $2.41 per share, missing analyst estimates of $2.44 per share, according to Benzinga Pro. "We delivered another quarter of exceptional financial performance across revenue, margin, cash flow and cRPO," said Marc Benioff, chair and CEO of Salesforce. "Agentforce, our complete AI system for enterprises built into the Salesforce Platform, is at the heart of a groundbreaking transformation. The rise of autonomous AI agents is revolutionizing global labor, reshaping how industries operate and scale." The company also said it sees full-year 2025 revenue of $37.8 billion to $38 billion and full-year adjusted earnings to be between $9.98 and $10.03 per share. Salesforce shares gained 0.1% to close at $331.43 on Tuesday. These analysts made changes to their price targets on Salesforce following earnings announcement. Piper Sandler analyst Brent Bracelin maintained Salesforce with an Overweight and raised the price target from $395 to $405. Barclays analyst Raimo Lenschow maintained the stock with an Overweight and raised the price target from $415 to $425. Needham analyst Scott Berg maintained Salesforce with a Buy and raised the price target from $345 to $375. Baird analyst Rob Oliver maintained Salesforce with an Outperform and raised the price target from $340 to $430. Northland Capital Markets analyst Nehal Chokshi reiterated Salesforce with an Outperform and raised the price target from $400 to $440. B of A Securities analyst Brad Sills maintained Salesforce with a Buy and raised the price target from $390 to $440. Morgan Stanley analyst Keith Weiss maintained the stock with an Overweight and raised the price target from $330 to $405. Stifel analyst Parker Lane maintained Salesforce with a Buy and raised the price target from $390 to $425. Considering buying CRM stock? Here's what analysts think: Read This Next: Jim Cramer Prefers FedEx Over This Delivery Giant That 'Screwed Up A Lot Of Holiday Seasons' Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

Salesforce Q3 Earnings: Revenue Beat, EPS Miss, Free Cash Flow Up 30%, AI Driving 'Groundbreaking Transformation' And More - Salesforce (NYSE:CRM)

Saleforce reports adjusted earnings of $2.41 per share, missing analyst estimates of $2.44 per share. Salesforce Inc CRM reported third-quarter financial results after the market close on Tuesday. Here's a look at the key metrics from the quarter. Q2 Earnings: Salesforce reported third-quarter revenue of $9.44 billion, beating the consensus estimate of $9.35 billion. The enterprise cloud solutions company reported adjusted earnings of $2.41 per share, missing analyst estimates of $2.44 per share, according to Benzinga Pro. Total revenue was up 8% on a year-over-year basis. Operating margin came in at 20%, and non-GAAP operating margin was 33.1%. Cash flow from operations was up 29% year-over-year and free cash flow was up 30% year-over-year to $1.78 billion. The company ended the quarter with remaining performance obligations of $26.4 billion, up 10% year-over-year. "We delivered another quarter of exceptional financial performance across revenue, margin, cash flow and cRPO," said Marc Benioff, chair and CEO of Salesforce. "Agentforce, our complete AI system for enterprises built into the Salesforce Platform, is at the heart of a groundbreaking transformation. The rise of autonomous AI agents is revolutionizing global labor, reshaping how industries operate and scale." Don't Miss: 'American Exceptionalism Trade' Gains Steam As Dollar, S&P 500 Surge In Lockstep: Bank Of America Salesforce said it repurchased $1.2 billion worth of its stock in the quarter and returned $400 million to shareholders in the form of dividend payments. Guidance: Salesforce expects fourth-quarter revenue to be in the range of $9.9 billion to $10.1 billion. The company anticipates fourth-quarter adjusted earnings of $2.57 to $2.62 per share. Salesforce sees full-year 2025 revenue of $37.8 billion to $38 billion. The company expects full-year adjusted earnings to be between $9.98 and $10.03 per share. "With Agentforce, we're not just witnessing the future -- we're leading it, unleashing a new era of digital labor for every business and every industry," Benioff said. Management will further discuss the quarter on a conference call with analysts and investors at 5 p.m. E.T. CRM Price Action: Salesforce shares were up 7.72% in after-hours, trading at $357 at publication Tuesday, according to Benzinga Pro. Photo: Shutterstock. Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

Salesforce CEO Benioff Calls Microsoft Copilot 'Repackaged ChatGPT'

'Salesforce now can operate a company on our platform-and I don't think you're going to find that on Microsoft's website,' Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff says. Salesforce CEO and co-founder Marc Benioff continued his attacks on artificial intelligence rival Microsoft during the vendor's latest quarterly earnings call, calling Microsoft's Copilot AI offerings a rebranding of generative AI offered by Microsoft-backed OpenAI. "In many ways, it's just repackaged ChatGPT," Benioff said on the call. "You can really see the difference where Salesforce now can operate a company on our platform-and I don't think you're going to find that on Microsoft's website. ... Go ahead and try to find this running on Microsoft.com." CRN has reached out to Microsoft for comment. Benioff said the San Francisco-based customer relationship management (CRM) vendor's Agentforce AI product on the Help.Salesforce.com portal and other parts of the company will "deflect between a quarter and a half of our annual case volume, and in optimistic cases, probably much, much more." The help portal handled 60 million sessions and more than 2 million support cases a year. [RELATED: Salesforce's Benioff Says Microsoft AI 'Has Disappointed So Many Customers,' But Vendor Hits Back] Brian Millham, Salesforce president and chief operating officer, illustrated the partner opportunity with the vendor in the AI era during the call. Millham said that global partners were involved in 75 percent of Agentforce deals in the quarter and nine of Salesforce's top 10 wins in the quarter. More than 80,000 system integrators have completed Agentforce training, Millham said. Hundreds of independent software vendors (ISVs) and technology partners are building and selling agents. Accenture-No. 1 on CRN's 2024 Solution Provider 500-has leveraged Agentforce for improving sales operations and bid management for its 52,000 global sellers, he said. "Our partners are also becoming agent-first enterprises themselves," he said. On the call-covering the three months ended Oct. 31-Benioff said the current AI era is about empowering digital labor with autonomous AI agents. "Salesforce has become, right out of the gate here, the largest supplier of digital labor," Benioff said. "This is just the beginning. ... We have 135,000 customers. And those 135,000 customers have now been endowed with Agentforce. It's in every single one of those implementations today. It's just a switch that needs to get flipped on." Agentforce became generally available (GA) Oct. 24 and has already delivered 200 deals, Benioff said. He described a pipeline of "thousands" of future transactions and hailed AI as a possible solution to stagnating labor worldwide. "This is really a moment where productivity is no longer tied to workforce growth," he said. "This is intelligent technology that can be scaled without limits. And Agentforce represents this next evolution of Salesforce." Use cases for Agentforce so far include solving customer issues, processing qualifying leads, closing deals, creating and improving marketing campaigns and more, he said. Salesforce is hiring between 1,000 and 2,000 more salespeople to help bring Agentforce to the masses. Agentforce is grounded on 740,000 Salesforce documents and 200 to 300 petabytes of data, he said. "That gives us this ... almost unfair advantage with Agentforce because our agents are going to be more accurate and the least hallucinogenic of any because they have access to this incredible capability." Benioff called Salesforce "the largest supplier of enterprise AI in the world" with 2 trillion transactions a week with its Einstein AI product. Benioff said that Salesforce AI bests competitors' offerings because of the unified code tying its offerings together. Competitors have different systems and applications running independently, interfering with AI results. "This is a bold leap into the future of work where AI agents-with humans-unite to transform all of our customer interactions," he said. Millham said on the call that the vendor saw the number of $1 million-plus wins with AI during the quarter more than tripled year over year. Data Cloud was part of eight of Salesforce's top 10 wins in the quarter. Salesforce customers are processing 767 trillion records every month, he said. Salesforce's Sales and Service clouds each saw double digit growth in the quarter. Commerce Cloud powered close to 50 million orders on digital storefronts during Cyber Week holiday sales. Salesforce powered nearly 60 billion AI-powered product recommendations, a 21 percent increase year over year, he said. More than 56 billion messages were sent with Marketing Cloud. Service Cloud helped customers field and resolve 3.8 billion cases. Annual spend on Slack AI grew nearly 50 percent quarter over quarter, with Slack AI summarizing more than 600 million messages since its release, saving users a collective 1.1 million hours. Slack was included in more than a third of Salesforce deals greater than $1 million. When asked on the call by an analyst whether Agentforce's $2 per conversation is acceptable to customers, Millham said, "Our customers really understand the costs of their labor right now, and when we can deploy agents to help them manage their interactions with their customers, the pricing conversations are significantly easier." Salesforce reported $9.44 billion in revenue for the quarter, up 8 percent year over year. As part of that revenue, Salesforce subscription and support revenue during the quarter was $8.88 billion, up 9 percent year over year. The vendor's current remaining performance obligation (cRPO) was $26.4 billion, an increase of 10 percent year over year. RPO was $53.1 billion, up 10 percent year over year. Salesforce Chief Financial Officer Amy Weaver said that Agentforce's recent availability means it was not "a material contributor to cRPO" during the quarter. Salesforce's operating cash flow for the quarter was $1.98 billion, up 29 percent year over year. Free cash flow was up 30 percent year over year to $1.78 billion. Salesforce expects between $9.9 billion and $10.1 billion in the fourth fiscal quarter-representing growth year over year between 7 percent and 9 percent. The vendor raised its fiscal year revenue guidance to between $37.8 billion and $38 billion. This represents growth of between 8 percent and 9 percent. Salesforce still expects full fiscal year subscription and support revenue growth of about 10 percent year over year. Weaver said that during the quarter, Salesforce's core clouds and subscription revenue helped drive sales. The vendor saw deceleration in license revenue growth for MuleSoft and Tableau. Health, life sciences, manufacturing and automotive were among the better performing industries, with retail and consumer goods not performing as well. Salesforce's stock was about $365 a share after market close Tuesday, up about 10 percent.

Salesforce Posts Strong Revenue With Promise of Boost From AI

Salesforce Inc. reported quarterly revenue that topped analysts' estimates, boosting investor hopes that the company's much-hyped strategy for artificial intelligence products will lift financial results. Sales increased 8.3% to $9.44 billion in the period ended Oct. 31, the company said Tuesday in a statement. Analysts, on average, estimated $9.35 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Adjusted operating margin, a measure of profitability, was 33.1%, compared with an average estimate of 32.2%

Great numbers for Salesforce - but let's talk about Agentforce

A stellar set of quarterly numbers from Salesforce, but the main order of business on the post-earnings conference call last night was an extended pitch for Agentforce, indicative of the shape of things to come in 2025. Let's get the numbers out of the way first. For Q3, total revenue was up eight percent year-on-year to $9.44 billion, with net income up 25% to $1.5 billion. Breaking down by clouds, revenue figures came in at: Unlike a number of its peers, Salesforce upped its guidance for the rest of the year, with the firm's share price enjoying a 10% bump post-results announcement. Agents incoming With that dealt with, on to the main order of the day (and months to come) - Agentforce and the rise of the Digital Labor market, a sector that CEO Marc Benioff says is: so much bigger and so much more exciting than the data management market, it's hard to get our head completely around. At the heart of this is Agentforce, which went into production in the last week of Q3 and is off to a flying start according to Benioff, with 200 deals and an "incredible" future transaction pipeline. (For context, Salesforce signed more than 2,000 AI deals in total in Q3.) He said: Agentforce represents this next evolution of Salesforce. This is a platform now, Salesforce is a platform where AI agents work alongside humans in a digital workforce that amplifies and augments human capabilities and delivers with unrivaled speed....We've unleashed that on our entire support organization already. We've created this incredible agentic layer around the whole company. And this is just the beginning of a complete digital transformation for the world. On top of this agentic layer, we'll soon see a robotic layer as well where these agents will manifest into robots. How all of this is going to change society is only visible today in the movies or in our imaginations, but we can see it unfolding right here through this company. He went on: This is going to evolve into customers that we have, whether it could be a large hospital or a large hotel where not only are the agents working 24/7, but robots are also working side-by-side with humans, robots, manifestations of agents, this idea that it's all happening before our eyes and this isn't just some far-off future, it's happening right now. And with Agentforce, we're unleashing this new era of digital labor for every business and every industry. And the implications are just simply profound. For decades, economic growth dependent on expanding the human workforce, it was all about getting more labor, but with labor and with the labor force stagnating globally, Agentforce is unlocking a new path forward. It's a new level of growth for the world and for our GDP and businesses no longer need to choose between scale and efficiency with agents, they can achieve both. Customers He cited companies like FedEx, Adecco, Accenture, ACE Hardware, IBM, RBC Wealth Management and "many more" as examples of firms from all industries that are now building digital labor forces on the Salesforce platform with Agentforce: Adecco, the world's leading provider of talent solutions, [handles] 300 million job applications annually, but historically they have just not been able to go through or respond in a timely way, of course, to the vast majority of applications that they're getting. But now Agentforce can operate at incredible scale sorting through the millions of resumes, 24/7 matching candidates to opportunities proactively pre-qualifying them for recruiters. And in addition, Agentforce can also assist candidates, helping them to refine their resumes, giving them a better chance of qualifying for a role. Meanwhile Salesforce's US customers are currently being exposed to a test where an agent has been put at the front of the company website. Benioff explained: This is an ungrounded agent, but it's really a vision for what the potential of what agents can be doing at every part of marketing, our help portal, help.salesforce.com, which is now live. This portal, this is our primary support mechanism for our customers. It lets them authenticate in, it then becomes grounded with the agent and that help portal already is handling 60 million sessions and more than 2 million support cases every year. Now that is 100% on Agentforce. It's going to have dramatic implications for our company from not only the technology point of view, but also from a human resource point of view, where we can really start to look at how are we going to re-balance our headcount into areas that now are fully automated and two, into areas that are critical for us to grow, like distribution. That's a pointer to the way organizations will need to re-think their approach to jobs and corporate roles, as Benioff noted: We're all going to need to re-balance our workforces as agents take on more of the workforce and then we can re-balance and re-shape our companies into new ways. But that doesn't mean job cuts and bad news. To capitalize on demand for Agentforce, Salesforce itself is hiring 1,400 sales account execs globally in its fourth quarter. Benioff argued: History has shown us that with every disruption comes an explosion of new opportunities. This morning, I was on the phone with one of our large customers and they were telling me how they're targeting inside their company 25% more efficiency with Artificial Intelligence, incredible goal. This is an incredible moment. Entire industries are going to emerge fueled by innovation and creativity of people using Agentforce to solve challenges to reach new heights. It's just the beginning of a level of innovation and change that none of us have really ever seen. It's a radical expansion of our total addressable market. And it's really the beginning of a change that we're going to see that's including agents, that's going to include robots, that's going to include the use of the data and the metadata and all the technology that we've been pioneering now for the last several decades. My take This is more than a technological revolution. It's an opportunity to create a better future for all of us. At the end of Dreamforce in September, I observed that Benioff was a man on a mission at this year's annual gathering, akin to the earliest days of the firm when the over-riding evangelical objective was to promote the 'no software' model of computing. Any doubts that the same is now true of the agent revolution can be safely parked - Agentforce is the topic du jour and will remain so throughout 2025 and beyond. There is no higher priority for Salesforce personnel and all efforts are going into turning the vision into reality. We've seen such 'all hands on deck'/'bet the farm' moments before at other vendors, not least Microsoft in 1995 where Bill Gates famously pivoted the company overnight towards conquering the internet in an email to all staffers headed The Internet Tidal Wave. From that moment, the entire company was mobilized on a war footing. Today Microsoft is (once again) in Benioff's firing lines in the battle for hearts and minds in this latest tech revolution as he declared: We all know about Copilot. It's been out, it's been touted now for a couple of years. We've heard about Copilot. We've seen the demos. In many ways, it's just repackaged ChatGPT that you can really see the difference where Salesforce now can operate its company on our platform. And I don't think you're going to find that on Microsoft's website, are you? That's a war of words that's only going to escalate in 2025. And for another prediction, I'll put money on the assumption that you won't see or hear a senior Salesforce executive next year giving interviews or making public appearances without Agentforce being among the first words out of their mouths. That's exciting in so many ways, with everyone on the same page and firing in the same direction, and, like his Oracle mentor Larry Ellison, Benioff is always at his best with a 'crusade' to fight. My only caution would be that the company will need to be wary of giving any impression, however false, that other areas of the business now play second fiddle to Agentforce. It was good then to hear Chief Operating Officer Brian Millham point out success stories at product line level on the conference call last night and state: Obviously, Service Cloud is our largest cloud and our initial Agentforce opportunity is with our Service Cloud customers right now, and we saw a ton of add-ons happening in our customer base with Service Cloud. But what our customers also recognize is that this is a platform...yes, of course, we want to have autonomous agents that are supporting customers like we have on help.salesforce.com, but what are all the opportunities you have in your interactions and the flow of work with your customers where you can deploy agents? So while we have tremendous excitement in the initial 200 [Agentforce] deals, we're largely in the Service Cloud space. We feel great about the opportunity with Sales Cloud and with Marketing Cloud and with Commerce Cloud and, of course, with Data Cloud, which is included in all of our Agentforce deals. And so those 200 deals [are] sort of [the] tip of the iceberg when we think about the opportunity that's ahead of us for Agentforce. Next up, even though Father Christmas is waiting in the wings, there's still business to do as Agentforce 2.0 gets its formal launch in San Francisco in just under two weeks time.