Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Announces Earnings Results

26 Aug 2026, 23:40 by Tristan Rich · The Markets Daily

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM – Get Free Report) 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.

Read Our Latest Analysis on CRM

About Salesforce

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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.