Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff speaks at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, January 18, 2024.
Halil Sagilskaya | Anadolu | Getty Images
sales force Shares rose 9% on Tuesday after the company’s third-quarter earnings report showed sales and fourth-quarter guidance beat analysts’ expectations.
Here’s how the company performed compared to Wall Street expectations, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:
Earnings per share: $2.41 adjusted vs. $2.44 expected Revenue: $9.44 billion vs. $9.34 billion expected
The company’s third quarter revenue (ending October 31) increased 8% year over year. Net income for the quarter was $1.5 billion, an increase of 25% from $1.2 billion in the year-ago period.
Salesforce said it expects fourth-quarter sales to be between $9.9 billion and $10.1 billion. Analysts had expected fourth-quarter sales of $10.05 billion.
The company said it expected fourth-quarter earnings per share of $2.57 to $2.62, compared with analysts’ expectations of $2.65.
Salesforce also raised the lower end of its revenue outlook, expecting fiscal 2025 sales to be in the range of $37.8 billion to $38 billion. This was a slight increase from $37.7 billion to $38 billion previously. The new range brings the midpoint of Salesforce’s fiscal 2025 revenue outlook to $37.9 billion, higher than analysts’ expectations of $37.86 billion.
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said in a statement: “We delivered exceptional financial performance across revenue, margin, cash flow and cRPO, as well as in the quarter.” “Agentforce, a complete enterprise AI system built into the Salesforce platform, is at the heart of this breakthrough transformation.”
On a conference call with analysts, Benioff boasted about Salesforce’s latest artificial intelligence advances, including the company’s AI-powered chatbot called Agentforce, which investors are watching closely for growth. Salesforce’s Agentforce product is an example of so-called AI agent technology. Several companies have stated that they believe these advanced chatbots are the next logical step from ChatGPT and other related tools that leverage large-scale language models.
“We also offer these great Agentforce features,” Benioff said. “This is a bold leap forward in the future of work, where AI agents unite humans to transform every interaction with customers.”
Benioff also revealed that he ruptured his Achilles tendon during a scuba diving trip to Fakarava, an atoll in French Polynesia, on his recent birthday. Benioff expressed disappointment that the hospital that treated him was unable to use an AI agent to schedule follow-up appointments.
“This is a message to our customers: How can we give some of our employees a break, get them back to doing strategic work and focus on what’s really important,” Benioff said. Ta.
The company announced in August that Amy Weaver would step down as chief financial officer but remain in the role until a successor is appointed, after which she would become an advisor. That same month, activist investor Starboard Value announced its position at Salesforce in the second quarter after issuing a letter earlier this year saying the company continued to move “in the right direction” in: It was revealed that the company’s sales had increased by about 40%. Improving profit margins.
In a presentation released in October, Starboard Value noted that Salesforce “can continue to become more efficient and profitable.”
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