Salesforce, Inc. CRM reported second-quarter fiscal 2027 non-GAAP earnings of $5.90 per share, up 102.7% year over year. The bottom line beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 80.43%.
Revenues rose 10.8% year over year to $11.35 billion and topped the consensus mark by 0.25%. Growth reflected momentum in Slack, Agentforce and Informatica. Agentforce and Data 360 ARR reached nearly $3.9 billion, up more than 210% year over year.
Salesforce surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings in each of the trailing four quarters, the average surprise being 36.14%.
Salesforce, Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise
Salesforce, Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Salesforce, Inc. Quote
CRM's Q2 Revenue Mix Shows Broad-Based Growth
Subscription and support revenues increased 11.7% year over year to $10.82 billion, including a $440 million contribution from Informatica. Professional services and other revenues declined 3.8% to $525 million.
Agentforce Apps generated $7.19 billion in subscription and support revenues, with constant-currency growth of 8%. Data 360, Headless Platform and Other contributed $3.62 billion and grew 20% in constant currency. Regionally, the Americas generated $7.4 billion, Europe $2.76 billion and Asia Pacific $1.17 billion, with constant-currency growth of 10%, 13% and 12%, respectively.
Current remaining performance obligation (cRPO) was $33.5 billion, up 14% year over year in constant currency. Total remaining performance obligation reached $66.3 billion, up 11%.
Salesforce's Agentic AI Usage Accelerates
Agentforce ARR exceeded $1.5 billion, rising more than 240% year over year. Customers completed 3.2 billion Agentic Work Units in the quarter, up 97% sequentially, taking cumulative volume across Agentforce and Slack to 7.0 billion.
Slack posted its fastest quarterly net new annual order value growth since the acquisition, while Slackbot users increased more than 150% quarter over quarter. Bookings from Agentforce One Edition and Agentforce for Apps more than doubled sequentially. Management also noted that first-half net new annual order value growth significantly outpaced annual order value growth.
Data 360 ingested 104 trillion records in the quarter, up 355% year over year. Zero Copy ingestion reached 82 trillion records, up 731%, underscoring the rising usage of the company's data layer alongside its agentic products.
CRM's Profitability Reflects Investment Gains
Non-GAAP operating income increased 10.3% year over year to $3.87 billion. The non-GAAP operating margin was 34.1%, down 20 basis points, while the GAAP operating margin fell 230 basis points to 20.5%. Non-GAAP cost of revenues rose to 20% of revenues from 19%, while general and administrative expenses declined to 5% from 6%.
Net gains on strategic investments totaled $2.61 billion compared with $6 million a year earlier. These gains contributed $2.53 per share to second-quarter non-GAAP earnings, providing a substantial boost to the quarter's bottom-line performance.
Salesforce's Cash Flow and Capital Return
In the second quarter, operating cash flow jumped 71.5% year over year to $1.27 billion, while free cash flow increased 81.5% to $1.10 billion. In the first half of fiscal 2027, the company generated operating and free cash flows of $7.97 billion and $7.65 billion, respectively. Salesforce ended the second quarter with $8.31 billion in cash and cash equivalents and $3.09 billion in marketable securities.
The company returned $364 million through dividends during the quarter and continued executing its $25 billion accelerated share repurchase program. Through the first half of fiscal 2027, capital returns totaled $27.9 billion. The share count was down 141 million shares, or 15%, year over year.
CRM Raises Fiscal 2027 Revenue Outlook
Salesforce raised its fiscal 2027 revenue guidance to $46.10-$46.40 billion from $45.90-$46.20 billion. The $200 million increase, or $300 million in constant currency, reflects $100 million of organic growth and $200 million tied to the pending Contentful and Fin acquisitions, partly offset by a $100 million foreign-exchange headwind. Non-GAAP operating margin guidance remains at 34.3%.
Salesforce lifted its fiscal 2027 non-GAAP earnings outlook to $16.67-$16.71 per share from $14.06-$14.12. It continues to expect operating cash flow and free cash flow growth of approximately 4%-5% year over year. Updated guidance incorporates the anticipated contributions from Contentful and Fin and is conditional upon the transactions closing.
For the third quarter of fiscal 2027, CRM expects revenues of $11.42-$11.50 billion, implying 11%-12% year-over-year growth, and non-GAAP earnings of $3.42-$3.44 per share. The company expects cRPO growth of approximately 14% year over year and in constant currency.
CRM’s Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider
Salesforce currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Some better-ranked stocks worth considering in the broader Zacks Computer and Technology sector are Applied Materials AMAT, Lam Research LRCX and Palo Alto Networks PANW, each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Applied Materials’ fiscal 2026 earnings is pegged at $12.73 per share, up by 4.9% over the past 30 days, indicating a year-over-year rise of 35.1%. Applied Materials shares have surged 87.5% year to date (YTD).
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Lam Research’s fiscal 2027 earnings has moved northward by 17.8% to $9.32 per share over the past 30 days and calls for a year-over-year jump of 60.4%. Lam Research shares have soared 83.8% YTD.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Palo Alto Networks’ fiscal 2026 earnings has remained unchanged at $3.78 per share over the past 30 days, implying a year-over-year increase of 13.2%. Palo Alto Networks shares have risen 94.1% YTD.
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