Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff speaks during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, January 18, 2024.
Halil Sagirkaya | Anatolia | Getty Images
Salesforce Shares rose 9% on Tuesday after the company reported fiscal third-quarter results, reported revenue and provided fiscal fourth-quarter guidance that beat analysts' expectations.
Here's how the company performed compared to Wall Street's expectations, based on an analyst survey by LSEG:
- Earnings per share: $2.41 adjusted vs. $2.44 expected
- Revenue: $9.44 billion versus expected $9.34 billion
The company's revenue rose 8% year-over-year in its fiscal third quarter ended Oct. 31. Net income was $1.5 billion for the quarter, up 25% from $1.2 billion a year ago.
Salesforce said it expects fiscal fourth-quarter revenue to be between $9.90 billion and $10.10 billion. Analysts forecast fourth-quarter revenue of $10.05 billion.
The company said it expects fourth-quarter earnings per share to be between $2.57 and $2.62, compared with analysts' expectations of $2.65.
Salesforce also raised the low end of its fiscal 2025 revenue forecast to $37.8 billion to $38 billion. That's a slight increase from $37.7 billion to $38 billion. The new range sets the midpoint of Salesforce's fiscal 2025 revenue forecast at $37.9 billion, above analysts' expectations of $37.86 billion.
“We delivered another quarter of exceptional financial performance across revenue, margin, cash flow and cRPO,” Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said in a statement. “Agentforce, our complete enterprise AI system integrated into the Salesforce platform, is at the center of a game-changing transformation.”
In a call with analysts, Benioff boasted about Salesforce's latest push into artificial intelligence, including the company's AI-powered chatbots called Agentforce, whose growth is being closely watched by investors. Salesforce's Agentforce product is an example of so-called AI agent technology. Several companies have stated that they believe these advanced chatbots represent the next logical step from ChatGPT and other related tools based on large language models.
“We also provide these incredible Agentforce capabilities,” Benioff said. “This is a bold leap into the future of work, where AI agents unite people to transform all of our customer interactions.”
Benioff also revealed that he recently tore his Achilles tendon during a diving trip to Fakarava in French Polynesia for his birthday. Benioff complained that the hospital that treated him could have scheduled his follow-up appointments using AI agents.
“That's the message to our customers: How can you give some of your employees a break so they can get back to their strategic work and focus on what's really important,” Benioff said, adding that he didn't have done. He doesn't give a shit about his injury.
The company announced in August that CFO Amy Weaver would step down from her role as chief financial officer but will remain in that position until the company names a successor, after which she will become an advisor. That same month, activist investor Starboard Value said it had increased its position in Salesforce by about 40% in the second quarter, after the company issued a letter earlier this year that said Salesforce continued to “involve itself in the… “right direction” means improving profit margins.
Starboard Value released a presentation in October noting that Salesforce “can continue to become more efficient and profitable.”
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