Salesforce - CRM's cutting edge, or soon even more so?

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Salesforce exceeded expectations in terms of both earnings and revenue in the first quarter of the year, and the company raised its guidance for the rest of the year.

The company’s revenue grew by 7.6 percent, and net profit remained stable. Salesforce announced an 8 billion dollar acquisition, targeting the data management company Informatica, which is the company’s largest deal since acquiring Slack in 2021.

The company also introduced a new AgentExchange marketplace for AI agents.

The guidance for the rest of the year still anticipates growth.

https://x.com/Earnings_Time/status/1927818817494753458
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Company Materials

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SalesForce has, in my eyes, become quite an interesting platform in the potential AI agent world. If / when in the near future corporate AI agents (see Google’s published A2A protocol, with SF as one of the partners Announcing the Agent2Agent Protocol (A2A) - Google Developers Blog) for example, start trading with each other, a robust data platform, precise agent orchestration, and good agent tools and related controls, which are already available in SalesForce, will be needed in the background.

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Investing visuals compared SaaS giants Salesforce and ServiceNow. :slight_smile:

https://x.com/InvestingVisual/status/1941144033377894476
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EV/FCF is now at its lowest in 10 years, cheap or “cheap”? :slight_smile: :thinking:

https://x.com/fiscal_ai/status/1942659996317278404
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Over 94 percent of Salesforce’s 38.6 billion revenue comes from subscription-based services – meaning stable, recurring revenue.

However, over 42% of the revenue is spent on sales and marketing, which indicates how important customer acquisition and retention are.

More on these topics (and others) can be found behind this link, where you can see the entire tweet thread even without X:
https://twitter-thread.com/t/1944270860489306270

Here is the starting message of the tweet thread
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and a link, if someone wants to read it on X for some reason:

https://x.com/mycreditjourney/status/1944270860489306270

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Salesforce has been featured in Investing visuals’ tweet in a comparison against ServiceNow. :slight_smile:

https://x.com/InvestingVisual/status/1947718290731897191
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Bristlemoon Capital invested in Salesforce because its current valuation offers an attractive opportunity.

They specifically see Agentforce and Data Cloud bringing growth potential in leveraging AI. Agentforce is seen as an “option” that could bring significant added value if it succeeds.

More on the matter in the tweet below. :slight_smile:

https://x.com/themattharbaugh/status/1951785343608295881
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I was pondering a bit on Sunday night that Salesforce is still a huge player in the CRM market and is one of the world’s largest cloud software companies. Great. :slight_smile:

It now has more stable profitability, but on the other hand, its growth is slowed by competitors and also a heavy cost structure. On the other hand, as noted earlier in the thread, the company’s future may develop around an ecosystem of AI agents (Agentforce + A2A).

Salesforce stock recently :slight_smile:

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(https://www.investing.com/equities/salesforce-com-advanced-chart)

Figures:

Revenue of $38.6 billion, and up to 94 percent comes from subscription-based SaaS services, so it’s stable.

On the other hand, the problem is sales, marketing, and administration, which account for over 40 percent of revenue.

On the plus side, the company’s stock-based compensation is decreasing, share buybacks are underway, and profitability also seems to be moving in the right direction.

Growth drivers:

Agentforce (AI agent platform), Einstein Copilot (generative interface for business data), and Data Cloud (assists with real-time AI analytics) are strongly supporting the company’s progress with AI.

Indeed, the company is involved in Google’s Agent2Agent (A2A) initiatives, which enable seamless collaboration between AI agents across different platform boundaries. Apparently, Salesforce plays a major role in this.

Salesforce is leading with A2A standard support to extend our open platform, enabling AI agents to work together seamlessly across Agentforce and other ecosystems to turn disconnected capabilities into orchestrated solutions and deliver an enhanced digital workforce for customers and employees.

  • Gary Lerhaupt, VP Product Architecture

Hindering Salesforce’s progress:

Big players, such as Microsoft with its gigantic ecosystem and ServiceNow with a modern approach. And the things brought by the previously mentioned A2A might not go as generally thought or/and for Salesforce.

In short:

The company has stable progress so far, but very high costs and strong competitors. Then there’s talk of CRM’s role diminishing, but on the other hand, the Google partnership could yield great benefits, or what if it doesn’t succeed?

In a way, I see it as attractive with its stable progress when A2A is added, but then I’m concerned about those other players and whether the company will truly succeed with its AI initiatives, for example… and their costs.

How do you see the company’s future and the company as an investment?

Thanks in advance for your answers! :slight_smile:

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Here’s a tweet about Salesforce’s numbers. :slight_smile:

According to the tweet, Salesforce’s stock price only reflects cautious free cash flow growth as the basis for its current valuation. The tweeter believes this seems cautious given the company’s previously rapid cash flow development, especially when compared to past years.

https://x.com/DividendDude_X/status/1954286580694233317
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Here’s the tweeter’s video about the company. :slight_smile:

Salesforce $CRM stock seems to keep falling. Today we are discussing why and if it is a good opportunity at current prices. If you did enjoy please smash that like button and subscribe, thanks for watching!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIBUSaUnDxk

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The article below discusses Salesforce, among other things, how the company’s stock has fallen sharply and its value has lagged far behind Oracle, whose AI boom has boosted its market capitalization to over 600 billion. Salesforce is suffering from slow growth, and investors are awaiting a plan for a turnaround.

The article focuses, among other things, on how Salesforce is seeking momentum from products like Agentforce-AI and a large Informatica deal, but growth has remained in single digits.

Activist investors are pushing for improved profitability. Some investors specifically believe in the company’s long-term value and are awaiting improved results.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/09/02/salesforce-investors-hope-for-faster-growth-ai-progress-in-earnings-.html

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Salesforce’s second quarter went quite strong; revenue and subscription-based revenues grew steadily, and the future order book also strengthened. The company also managed to increase its margins for the tenth consecutive quarter. :slight_smile:

Management emphasized that the results reflect customer success and a shift towards a model where people and AI work side-by-side. Customers include major players from various industries, which strengthens confidence in the company’s solutions generally.

Salesforce returned capital to its owners through both share buybacks and dividends :heart:. According to the company, it is well-positioned for a record year, especially in terms of cash flow growth.

https://x.com/earnings_guy/status/1963331495780569212
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Here are the figures visualized. :slight_smile:

https://x.com/EconomyApp/status/1963335514368655742
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From this, you can see very well, for example, how it went compared to expectations. :slight_smile:

https://x.com/StockMarketNerd/status/1963340954384916952
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Company’s own materials

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Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff declared 2025 the year of Agentforce, but less than 5 percent of customers have adopted it. The software proved to be complex and inaccurate, leading to expensive acquisitions and, among other things, the disbandment of an expert team.

Now Salesforce is trying to reassemble the team, but the earnings outlook has weakened. Benioff claims everything is fine, even though the market understandably doesn’t believe the promises. Compared to competitors, the problem is the value brought by the product itself, not the price.

More on the matter in the tweet below.

https://x.com/Kross_Roads/status/1967618843372888194

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An interesting and concise tweet about Salesforce, but the reply to it is also interesting. :slight_smile:

https://x.com/fiscal_ai/status/1972330487495655859

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The tweet below and its reply contain some good points:

Salesforce’s operating profit has surged, from about one billion dollars in 2023 to over seven billion by this year. The company stopped burning excessive sales and marketing expenses and focused instead on profitability.

In two years, the operating profit margin rose from three to 19 percent, even though revenue continued to grow. The AI hype played its part, but the real breakthrough came when Benioff’s team realized that profitability trumps growth at any cost.

https://x.com/truthdotphd/status/1974940935390937112

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Salesforce introduced a voice feature, Agentforce Voice, to its Agentforce AI customer service software.

It allows AI agents to answer calls naturally, and companies can also adjust the voice’s style and speed. The feature integrates with common telephone systems and will be launched at the Dreamforce event.

"Key Points

  • Salesforce announced Agentforce Voice, a feature that allows companies to have artificial intelligence agents answer customer service calls.
  • The Agentforce product, which also includes text chat, now has more than 12,000 implementations, Salesforce said.
  • Salesforce’s annual Dreamforce conference begins Tuesday."

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/10/13/salesforce-adds-voice-to-agentforce-ai-customer-service-software.html

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Valuation is low. Somehow it feels difficult for AI to displace this company. Most SP500 companies were likely customers, and the US military was one of the largest. Products are integrated into dozens of processes and systems and used by thousands, even tens of thousands, of users per company. They certainly won’t start changing systems even if they could get an equivalent “for free.” Of course, new sales and selling new “seats” will be more difficult in the future. On the other hand, a good example of a new customer from Finland is KELA, whose new “core system” is being built on top of Salesforce. One would think that for AI capabilities, they would internally offer their own Agentforce versus a competing application.

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Here’s a story about how Salesforce is expanding its collaboration with OpenAI and Anthropic.

The company’s own Agentforce 360 data will become available in ChatGPT later this year. Mutual customers can sell products directly through ChatGPT’s instant checkout, and Salesforce is also deploying Anthropic’s Claude Code programming tool.

"Key Points

  • Salesforce announced expansions of its partnerships with AI model developers Anthropic and OpenAI.
  • Agentforce data will be accessible in OpenAI’s ChatGPT starting later this year, and mutual customers will be able to sell products through the assistant’s instant checkout feature.
  • Salesforce is deploying Anthropic’s Claude Code across its engineering organization."

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/10/14/salesforce-will-bring-agentforce-to-openais-chatgpt-later-in-2025.html

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Salesforce’s stock rose sharply in after-hours trading yesterday because the company gave a positive forecast for 2030.

The company expects over $60 billion in revenue, which exceeds analysts’ estimate of $58.37 billion. The forecast does not include the $8 billion Informatica acquisition.

Salesforce believes growth will accelerate to over 10% annually for 2026–2030.

"Key Points

  • Salesforce shares rose in extended trading after the software vendor issued new financial targets for the next few years.
  • The company said it now expects over $60 billion in 2030, above the $58.37 billion consensus among analysts polled by LSEG.
  • The guidance excludes impact from the $8 billion pending acquisition of data management company Informatica."

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/10/15/salesforce-stock-jumps-after-company-offers-rosy-forecast-for-2030.html

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Salesforce’s updated Agentic Enterprise platform, which is reportedly starting to generate interest in the market, has been mentioned quite a lot in various contexts.

The company is expanding sales and licensing, and customers’ annual billing is even expected to multiply thanks to the new model. According to the article, practical results should be visible next year, but the AI-driven strategy seems to be progressing already and still as planned.

The financial services company highlighted the company’s enhanced sales capacity and extended commercial licensing options. What’s even more interesting is that Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) anticipates annual recurring revenue (ARR) spend to increase due to the customers who have transitioned to the “Agentic Enterprise” model by three to four times, resulting in a potential multiplier effect of its “Agentforce” vision, as the firm notes.

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Below is, in my opinion, a good and illustrative tweet about Salesforce’s history and the company’s most important phases. It might help a bit to understand the company as an investment target as well. :slight_smile:

https://x.com/DividendTalks/status/1979554425564717373

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