Salesforce Gains As Revenue Finally Stabilizes

Salesforce.com Inc (CRM:US) shares were seen higher in early Thursday trade after the software company reported better-than-expected second-quarter results and offered guidance that topped analyst estimates.

The company reported earnings per share of $2.12, topping the consensus of $1.90. Salesforce’s revenue for the quarter amounted to $8.6 billion, ahead of the average analyst estimate of $8.53 billion.

Subscription and support revenue was $8.01 billion, up 12% YoY, and better than the estimate of $7.91 billion. The current remaining performance obligation (cRPO) came in at $24.1 billion, while analysts were looking for $23.66 billion.

“Our transformation drove our strong second quarter results, delivering revenue of $8.6 billion and record GAAP and non-GAAP operating margins,” said Marc Benioff, Chair and CEO of Salesforce. 

“Based on our performance and what we see in the back half of the year, we’re raising our fiscal year ‘24 revenue, operating margin, and operating cash flow growth guidance. As the #1 AI CRM, with industry-leading clouds, Einstein, Data Cloud, MuleSoft, Slack and Tableau, all integrated on one trusted, unified platform, we’re leading our customers into the new AI era.”

For the third quarter of 2024, Salesforce expects an EPS range of $2.05 to $2.06, surpassing the consensus estimate of $1.83. The company also anticipates a revenue range of $8.7 billion to $8.72 billion for the same period, exceeding the consensus estimate of $8.66 billion. 

Looking at the full fiscal year 2024, Salesforce projects an EPS range of $8.04 to $8.06, easily ahead of the consensus estimate of $7.45. The revenue projection for the fiscal year ranges from $34.7 billion to $34.8 billion, slightly surpassing the consensus estimate of $34.65 billion. 

The Q2 outperformance comes after several Congress members were buying CRM shares. These include Rep. Ro Khanna, Jonathan Jackson, Daniel Goldman, and Josh Gottheimer. 

Most notably, Rep. Goldman spent $100,000 - $250,000 to acquire CRM shares on January 31, when they closed at $167.97.

CRM stock traded near $230 on Thursday.