Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, spoke at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on January 18, 2024.
Halil Sagirkaya | Anatolia | Getty Images
Salesforce shares rose 9% on Tuesday after the company’s third-quarter earnings report beat analysts’ expectations for revenue and fourth-quarter fiscal guidance.
Here’s how the company fared compared to what Wall Street expected, based on an LSEG survey of analysts:
- Earnings per share: $2.41 adjusted vs $2.44 expected
- Income: $9.44 billion vs $9.34 billion expected
The company’s revenue grew 8% year-over-year in its fiscal third quarter, which ended Oct. 31. Its net income was $1.5 billion in the quarter, up 25% from a year ago.
Salesforce said it expects fiscal fourth-quarter sales of $9.9 billion to $10.1 billion. Analysts had expected fourth-quarter sales of $10.05 billion.
The company said it expects earnings per share to be between $2.57 and $2.62 in the fourth quarter, compared with analysts’ expectations of $2.65.
Salesforce also raised the low end of its revenue guidance, expecting a range of $37.8 billion to $38 billion for fiscal 2025. That’s up slightly from the previous $37.7 billion to $38 billion. The new range puts the midpoint of Salesforce’s 2025 revenue guidance at $37.9 billion, ahead of analysts’ forecasts 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 AI system for businesses built on the Salesforce Platform, is at the heart of a pioneering transformation.”
In a call with analysts, Benioff touted Salesforce’s latest AI push, including the company’s AI-powered chatbots called Agentforce. follow up for growth An example is Salesforce’s so-called Agentforce product AI agent technology. Several companies have said they believe these advanced chatbots represent the next logical step from ChatGPT and other tools powered by large language models.
“We’re also offering these incredible Agentforce capabilities,” Benioff said. “It’s a bold leap into the future of work, where AI agents let humans join forces to transform all of our customer interactions.”
Benioff also revealed that he ruptured his Achilles tendon on a short-birthday diving trip to Fakarava, an atoll in French Polynesia. Benioff expressed disappointment that the hospital that treated him was unable to schedule his follow-up appointments using AI agents.
“That’s the message to our customers, which is how do you give some of your people a break, let them go back to their strategic work, let them focus on what’s really important,” Benioff said.
Company in August announced Amy Weaver will step down as CFO, but will remain in the role until the company appoints a successor, after which she will become a consultant. That month, activist investors Starboard Value revealed After increasing its position in Salesforce by roughly 40% in the second quarter, the company issued a letter earlier this year saying that Salesforce remained “on the right track” to improve its profit margin.
Starboard Value has released a presentation In October, he stated that Salesforce “can continue to be more efficient and profitable.”
see: Bespoke’s Paul Hickey says Salesforce has been overbought in the short term
