Salesforce.com (CRM.US), the U.S. cloud software giant specializing in customer relationship management (CRM), reported its fiscal Q3 2026 earnings and outlook before market open on Thursday. The results showed that AI agents are driving a new phase of growth, with both Q3 performance and forward guidance exceeding Wall Street expectations. The stock surged over 8% in after-hours trading.
Salesforce's robust growth and outlook reinforce the "long-term bull market narrative" for AI application stocks, highlighting widespread adoption across enterprise and consumer sectors. The company provided stronger-than-expected revenue guidance for the current quarter, signaling successful adoption of its AI tools and "AI Agent" solutions.
For the quarter ending January 2027, Salesforce projects revenue between $11.1-$11.2 billion, above analysts' $10.9 billion consensus. Current Remaining Performance Obligation (cRPO), a key bookings metric, is expected to grow about 15% versus 10% consensus. Adjusted EPS guidance of $3.02-$3.04 slightly tops the $3.03 consensus.
For full fiscal 2026, management raised revenue guidance to $41.45-$41.55 billion (9%-10% growth), maintaining alignment with Street estimates. Adjusted operating margin is projected at 34%, with EPS of $11.75-$11.77. The outlook includes a 3-point contribution from Informatica, the data integration software firm acquired for $8 billion last month.
In Q3, AI Agent solutions drove 8.6% revenue growth to $10.3 billion, with adjusted EPS of $3.25 matching consensus. cRPO grew 11% to $29.4 billion, beating the $29.1 billion estimate. Operating metrics showed strength: GAAP operating margin at 21.3%, non-GAAP at 35.5%, with operating cash flow up 17% to $2.3 billion and free cash flow rising 22% to $2.2 billion.
Core Sales and Service Cloud platforms each grew 8% currency-adjusted, while subscription/support revenue reached $9.7 billion (10% reported growth, 9% constant currency).
The company is aggressively pushing adoption of Agentforce, its autonomous AI agent for sales and customer service tasks. Since launching late last year, the platform has secured over 9,500 paid subscriptions, up from 6,000 last quarter. AI-related tools now generate about $1.4 billion in annual recurring revenue.
CEO Marc Benioff highlighted Agentforce and Data 360 as key growth drivers. However, analysts note enterprise adoption remains in trial phases due to pricing complexity and data integration challenges.
The strong results come as investors weigh competition from AI-native firms like OpenAI and Anthropic. Salesforce's AI strategy centers on integrating its Einstein platform and Agentforce across all cloud products, with Data Cloud/Data 360 forming the foundation.
The performance reinforces the AI application sector's bullish thesis, following similar strength from Google's Gemini 3 rollout and robust earnings from AI-focused firms like AppLovin, Palantir, and Meta. The market is seeing parallel growth in AI infrastructure (evidenced by surging HBM memory demand) and application layers.
Industry trends point to two dominant AI software directions: generative AI tools (like ChatGPT and Claude) and autonomous AI agents capable of executing complex tasks. Enterprise demand for efficiency gains is accelerating adoption of both categories, with AI agents representing what many see as the next productivity revolution before 2030.
After closing at $238.72, Salesforce shares jumped 8% post-earnings, despite a 29% year-to-date decline amid AI competition concerns.
