The Salesforce shares dropped 5 percent in extended trading on Wednesday following the customer service software developer recording healthy results, while its outlook for its revenue forecasting for fiscal 2027 was under Wall Street expectations.
Here’s how the company did in comparison with LSEG consensus: Earnings per share: $3.81 adjusted compared to $3.04 expected. Revenue: $11.20 billion compared to $11.18 billion expected.
According to a statement, Salesforce saw its revenue increase by 12 percent on a year-on-year basis in its fiscal fourth quarter, which closed on January 31. It is the fastest growth rate of the company in two years.
The firm has set aside $50 billion worth of new share buy-backs, “because these are some low prices,” CEO Marc Benioff said on a conference call with analysts. By the end of Wednesday, Salesforce stocks had already dropped approximately 28 percent in 2026, whereas the S&P 500 index had appreciated 1 percent.
The net income of $1.94 billion, or $2.07 per share, surged from $1.71 billion, or $1.75 per share. Adjusted earnings per share do not include stock-based compensation expenses, amortization of purchased intangible assets, and restructuring expenses.
Current remaining performance obligation, an amount of contracted unrecognized revenue, and unbilled amounts that are to be recognized as revenue within the next year, amounted to $35.1 billion. The figure was higher than StreetAccount’s $34.53 billion consensus.
The fiscal first quarter guidance projected adjusted earnings per share in the range of between $3.11 and $3.13 on a revenue range of between $11.03 billion to $11.08 billion. Analysts surveyed by LSEG were looking for $3.00 per share and $10.99 billion in revenue.
For the 2027 fiscal year, Salesforce called for $13.11 to $13.19 in adjusted earnings per share on $45.8 billion to $46.2 billion in revenue, which implies 10 percent to 11 percent growth. The LSEG consensus was at $13.12 per share on revenue of $46.06 billion.
Investors have grown increasingly concerned that generative models of artificial intelligence may effectively diminish the growth potential of large software companies in recent weeks.
IBM shares fell 13 percent in its worst one-day decline since 2000 on Monday, when Anthropic wrote an entry warning that its Claude Code AI developer assistance tool may help in the process of modernizing code written in the Cobol programming language.
During the quarter, Salesforce released an AI-enabled Slackbot assistant in its Slack team communication app for paying clients. The firm also finalized its $8 billion Informatica acquisition, and it announced its intention to acquire the marketing company Qualified. Informatica, a data management software company, contributed $399 million in revenue during the quarter.
However, the company now sees $63 billion in fiscal 2030 revenue, up from a target of over $60 billion it presented in October. Analysts interviewed by LSEG had been seeking $59.07 billion. The new figure incorporates an addition of Informatica.
Five clients of ServiceNow have transferred into the competing product in information technology service management in Salesforce in the quarter, Benioff said in the TBPN podcast on Wednesday.
Salesforce has been striving towards increasing the use of its Agentforce AI technology in automating customer service and other corporate activities. The firm reported that the annualized revenue of Agentforce was over $800 million during the quarter.
Morgan Stanley analysts, with the equivalent of a buy rating on Salesforce stock, stated in a Monday note to clients that conversations with partners “continue to indicate we are in the early innings.”
In the meantime, Salesforce is enjoying a payoff on its strategic investments in Anthropic, operating a gain of 811m on strategic investments in the quarter. That is compared to $96 million in the previous quarter.
Benioff added, “I think we just put another $100 million into the new round. We’re [at] about $330 million into Anthropic invested. It’s almost about 1% of Anthropic. And believe me, I wish we had invested a lot more.”
Benioff reported that the company is not doing everything possible with debt. “We’re just very under-leveraged on our balance sheet,” he added.
