Salesforce Chairman and CEO Marc Benioff speaks at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on January 18, 2024.
Fabrice Coferini | AFP | Getty Images
salesperson Shares of the business software maker rose 4% in after-hours trading on Wednesday. report Strong second-quarter results beat expectations and raised its full-year profit forecast.
The company also said its chief financial officer, Amy Weaver, would resign. She will continue as corporate financial officer until a successor is named, and will continue in an advisory capacity thereafter. Salesforce co-founder, chairman and chief executive Marc Benioff said on a conference call with analysts that Salesforce will consider both internal and external candidates. He said the idea was for Weaver to take over the finance role after serving as general counsel in 2013.
Here’s how the company performed against the LSEG consensus:
- Earnings per share: Adjusted $2.56, expected $2.36
- income: US$9.33 billion, expected US$9.23 billion
Revenue rose 8% annually in the quarter ended July 31, according to one company statement. Weaver noted that average revenue per user has grown, in part due to a shift toward premium products.
Net income was $1.43 billion, or $1.47 a share, up from $1.27 billion, or $1.28 a share, a year earlier.
In terms of guidance, Salesforce expects fiscal third-quarter adjusted earnings of $2.42 to $2.44 per share on revenue of $9.31 billion to $9.36 billion. Analysts surveyed by LSEG had expected earnings of $2.43 per share and revenue of $9.41 billion.
Management expects fiscal 2025 adjusted earnings per share of $10.03 to $10.11 and revenue of $37.7 billion to $38 billion, which would imply growth of 8% to 9%. Last quarter’s forecast was $9.86 to $9.94 per share and revenue of $37.7 billion to $38 billion. LSEG’s consensus forecast was for adjusted earnings of $9.89 per share and revenue of $37.84 billion. Salesforce’s adjusted full-year operating margin guidance now stands at 32.8%, up from 32.5% in May.
“We assume that the conditions we have experienced over the past few years continue,” Weaver said. Executives have previously pointed to longer sales cycles and a review of budgets.
This quarter, Salesforce explain This fall, it will begin testing Einstein Copilot for merchants, which can write product pages and promotional messages with a few manually entered sentences.
Benioff talked about the company’s Agentforce artificial intelligence product during the conference call.
“This is not the co-pilot,” Benioff said. “Many customers are very disappointed with their purchases Microsoftand co-pilots because they weren’t getting the accuracy and response they wanted. Microsoft’s artificial intelligence has disappointed many customers. listen. These agents are autonomous, able to act accurately, out of the box and directly out of the platform.
Microsoft did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
Earlier this month, activist investors Starboard and ValueAct both revealed increases in their Salesforce positions. Both of them bought shares before the company announced expansion Its adjusted operating margin was ahead of last year’s plan.
Excluding after-hours action, Salesforce shares are down 2% so far in 2024, while the S&P 500 has gained 17% during the same period.
Correction: Updated to reflect correct full-year revenue guidance.
