Salesforce commits $50 billion for new buybacks as revenue guidance falls short

Salesforce commits  billion for new buybacks as revenue guidance falls short


Marc Benioff, chief executive officer of Salesforce Inc., during the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026.

Krisztian Bocsi | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Salesforce shares slipped 3% in extended trading on Wednesday after the customer service software maker reported healthy results and boosted its long-range revenue goal, although its fiscal 2027 revenue view trailed Wall Street projections.

Here’s how the company did in comparison with LSEG consensus:

  • Earnings per share: $3.81 adjusted vs. $3.04 expected
  • Revenue: $11.20 billion vs. $11.18 billion expected

Salesforce’s revenue grew 12% year over year in its fiscal fourth quarter, which ended on Jan. 31, according to a statement. It’s the company’s fastest growth rate in two years.

The company said it has allocated $50 billion for new share buybacks.

Net income of $1.94 billion, or $2.07 per share, increased from $1.71 billion, or $1.75 per share. Adjusted earnings per share excludes stock-based compensation expense, amortization of purchased intangible assets and restructuring costs.

Current remaining performance obligation, a sum of contracted but unrecognized revenue and unbilled amounts that will be recognized as revenue over the next year, came in at $35.1 billion. The figure was higher than StreetAccount’s $34.53 billion consensus.

Guidance for the fiscal first quarter included $3.11 to $3.13 in adjusted earnings per share on $11.03 billion to $11.08 billion in revenue. Analysts surveyed by LSEG were looking for $3.00 per share and $10.99 billion in revenue.

For 2027 fiscal year, Salesforce called for $13.11 to $13.19 in adjusted earnings per share on $45.8 billion to $46.2 billion in revenue, which implies 10 to 11% growth. The LSEG consensus had $13.12 per share on $46.06 billion in revenue.

The company now sees $63 billion in fiscal 2030 revenue, up from a target of over $60 billion it presented in October. Analysts polled by LSEG had been looking for $59.07 billion.

As of Thursday’s close, Salesforce shares had fallen about 28% so far in 2026, while the S&P 500 index had gained 1%.

In recent weeks, investors have become increasingly worried that generative artificial intelligence models might dampen major software companies’ growth opportunities.

On Monday, IBM stock dropped 13% in its worst daily performance since 2000 after Anthropic published a blog post saying its Claude Code AI tool for developers can assist with modernizing code written in the Cobol programming language.

During the quarter, Salesforce released an AI-enabled Slackbot assistant in its Slack team communication app for paying clients. The company also completed its $8 billion Informatica acquisition and announced plans to buy marketing company Qualified. Informatica contributed $399 million in revenue during the quarter.

Salesforce has been working to expand adoption of its Agentforce AI technology for automating customer service and other corporate functions.

The company said annualized Agentforce revenue exceeded $800 million in the quarter.

Morgan Stanley analysts, with the equivalent of a buy rating on Salesforce stock, said in a Monday note to clients that conversations with partners “continue to indicate we are in the early innings.”

Executives will discuss the results on an “earnings show” conference call, alongside CEOs of SharkNinja and Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, starting at 5 p.m. ET.

WATCH: Investors are paying less and less for software earnings these days, says Jim Cramer

Investors are paying less and less for software earnings these days, says Jim Cramer



Source

Former Alphabet ‘moonshot’ robotics company Intrinsic is folding into Google
Technology

Former Alphabet ‘moonshot’ robotics company Intrinsic is folding into Google

Google is folding in former moonshot robotics software company Intrinsic as Alphabet tries to streamline its ambitions in the space. After five and a half years developing its technology at Alphabet’s “moonshot factory” X, Intrinsic became an independent Alphabet company in its “Other Bets” division in July 2021. The Google parent company announced Wednesday that […]

Read More
Samsung’s S26 gives an advance look at what the Google-powered Apple Siri could do
Technology

Samsung’s S26 gives an advance look at what the Google-powered Apple Siri could do

The Gemini AI assistant on a Samsung 26S Ultra smartphone during a product preview event in San Francisco, California, US, on Monday, Feb. 23, 2026. David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images Samsung on Wednesday unveiled the Galaxy S26 series, its latest flagship smartphone lineup that puts Alphabet‘s Gemini artificial intelligence front and center. […]

Read More
Why has the software sell-off been so extreme? Look to this arcane way to value stocks
Technology

Why has the software sell-off been so extreme? Look to this arcane way to value stocks

Why has the sell-off in software stocks — driven by artificial intelligence disruption fears — been so dramatic and seemingly unending? In this Club Check-in, CNBC’s Paulina Likos and Zev Fima answer that question by diving into an important concept that investors use to evaluate stocks called terminal value. Software profits have not collapsed, and […]

Read More