Salesforce, Inc. (CRM) - Company Research

Last Updated: 2 May 2026

Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE: CRM) is the world's largest enterprise CRM software company, ranked #1 by IDC for the 12th consecutive year and a Dow 30 / S&P 500 constituent. Fiscal 2026 (52 weeks ended 31 January 2026) revenue was $41.5 bn (+10%), with non-GAAP operating margin reaching 34.1% (vs 33.0% FY25), GAAP operating margin 20.1%, and free cash flow $14.4 bn (+16%). Q4 FY26 was a record quarter at $11.2 bn revenue (+12%) and non-GAAP EPS $3.81. Total Remaining Performance Obligation closed FY26 at $72.4 bn (+14%) with current RPO of $35.1 bn (+16% reported, +13% constant currency including a 4-pt Informatica contribution). The Agentforce platform crossed $800 m ARR in Q4 FY26 (+169% YoY), with 29,000 cumulative deals closed and 50% Q/Q growth in customers running Agentforce in production; Agentforce + Data 360 ARR combined reached $2.9 bn (+200%). On 30 April 2026 Marc Benioff announced "Salesforce Headless 360" on X — exposing the entire Salesforce, Agentforce and Slack platforms as APIs, MCP and CLI for direct AI-agent access (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Windsurf). Salesforce closed the $8 bn Informatica acquisition on 18 November 2025, ahead of schedule, and authorised a $50 bn buyback in February 2026 alongside a $25 bn senior-notes issuance. The next earnings release (Q1 FY27, period ending 30 April 2026) is expected 27–28 May 2026; the 2026 AGM is on 28 May. For live pricing see our live charts, upcoming releases on the economic calendar, and discussion on the ChartsView forum.

1. Company Snapshot

Company	Salesforce, Inc.
Ticker	NYSE: CRM (Dow 30, S&P 500, S&P 100)
Sector / Industry	Technology / Application Software / SaaS
HQ	Salesforce Tower, 415 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94105, USA
Chair & CEO	Marc Benioff (co-founder, in role since founding 1999)
President & COFO (combined COO + CFO)	Robin Washington (since 21 March 2025; ex-CFO Gilead)
Co-founder & CTO	Parker Harris
President & Chief Engineering / Customer Success	Srinivas "Srini" Tallapragada
Founded	1999
Employees	83,334 (per FY26 10-K, as of 31 January 2026)
Fiscal year end	31 January (FY26 ended 31 Jan 2026)
Share price (1 May 2026)	$183.82
52-week range	$163.52 (10 Apr 2026) — $296.05 (14 May 2025)
Market cap (1 May 2026)	~$150.4 bn
Enterprise value	~$158.5 bn
FY2026 revenue / non-GAAP op margin	$41.5 bn (+10%) / 34.1%
FY2026 free cash flow	$14.4 bn (+16%)
Total RPO / current RPO (FY26 end)	$72.4 bn (+14%) / $35.1 bn (+16%)
Agentforce ARR (Q4 FY26)	$800 m (+169%); Agentforce + Data 360 combined $2.9 bn (+200%)
Quarterly dividend	$0.44 (raised 5.8% from $0.416 in February 2026); $1.76 annualised; ex-div 9 April 2026
Buyback authorisation	$50 bn (lifted from $30 bn on 26 February 2026)
Website	salesforce.com / investor.salesforce.com

2. Bull Case vs Bear Case

Bull Case	Bear Case
"Profitable growth" pivot delivering: non-GAAP operating margin 22% (FY22) → 30.5% (FY24) → 33.0% (FY25) → 34.1% (FY26); GAAP operating margin 20.1% in FY26; FY27 guide 34.3%.	FY27 revenue guidance of $45.8–$46.2 bn (+10–11%) implies no meaningful re-acceleration despite the AI narrative; growth has compressed from 25% (FY22) to 8–11% range.
Agentforce traction: $800 m ARR (+169% YoY), 29,000 cumulative deals, 50% Q/Q growth in customers running Agentforce in production, >60% of Q4 Agentforce/Data 360 bookings from existing customer expansion.	Agentforce monetisation pace: $800 m ARR is <2% of $41.5 bn total revenue. Open question whether agentic AI re-accelerates the headline number or cannibalises seat-based licensing.
Capital return at scale: $50 bn buyback authorised Feb 2026; $25 bn senior-notes issuance (8 tranches, 2028–2066, 4.5%–6.7% coupons) funding accelerated buyback; FY26 returned ~$14 bn (~99% of FCF) to shareholders; quarterly dividend lifted 5.8% to $0.44.	Microsoft Copilot bundling / Dynamics 365: Microsoft's M365 distribution and aggressive Copilot pricing pose a structural seat-based threat; Salesforce's price-per-seat model is the most exposed in software to agent-driven seat reduction.
RPO and current RPO growth: total RPO $72.4 bn (+14%); current RPO $35.1 bn (+16% reported), +13% constant currency — supports forward revenue visibility.	Stock down ~32% over trailing 12 months; market cap halved from peak ~$300 bn to ~$150 bn despite strong fundamentals; valuation re-rating in progress.
Informatica integration ahead of plan: $8 bn deal closed 18 Nov 2025 (announced 27 May 2025); FY26 included $399 m partial-period Informatica contribution; expected to be accretive within 12 months.	Activist re-engagement risk: 2022–2023 saw simultaneous campaigns by Starboard, Elliott, ValueAct, Inclusive Capital and Third Point. NLPC has filed a cumulative-voting proposal at the May 2026 AGM.
Strategic AI partnerships: OpenAI / GPT-5 in Atlas Reasoning Engine and Prompt Builder, Agentforce inside ChatGPT, Anthropic Claude in Agentforce / Slack, Google Cloud, AWS, Azure (Hyperforce); Agentic AI Foundation member.	Stock-based comp dilution: 3-year buyback total ~$28 bn with diluted shares only down ~4%; SBC remains a significant offset.

3. What Does This Company Actually Do?

Salesforce sells subscription-based enterprise software organised around the "Customer 360" platform — Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing & Commerce Cloud, Salesforce Platform & Other (including Slack, Tableau, MuleSoft, Data Cloud / Data 360, and Agentforce), plus Integration & Analytics following the Informatica close.

FY2026 revenue mix (subscription & support split, $ billions):

• Service Cloud — ~$9.82 bn (~24% of subscription / ~23.7% of total)
• Sales Cloud — ~$9.03 bn (~22% of subscription / ~21.8% of total)
• Salesforce Platform & Other — ~$8.88 bn (~21% of subscription / ~21.4% of total) — Slack, Agentforce, custom platform.
• Integration & Analytics — ~$6.23 bn (~15% of subscription / ~15.0% of total) — MuleSoft, Tableau, Informatica.
• Marketing & Commerce Cloud — ~$5.43 bn (~13% of subscription / ~13.1% of total)
• Subscription & Support total — $39.4 bn (~95% of total); Professional Services & Other ~$2.1 bn (~5%).

Geographic mix (FY26): Americas $27.2 bn (~65%, +8% YoY), EMEA $10.0 bn (~25%, +9% YoY), Asia-Pacific $4.3 bn (~10%, +12% YoY).

4. The Business Model

Salesforce sells multi-year SaaS subscriptions priced primarily per seat, augmented increasingly by consumption / metering on Data Cloud, Agentforce conversations and Agentic Work Units (AWUs). ~95% of FY26 revenue was subscription & support, ~5% professional services. Recurring revenue is supported by an enterprise base of large multi-cloud customers and a $72.4 bn book of remaining performance obligation (RPO) at FY26 close.

• "Profitable growth" pivot: began early 2023 under Benioff post-activist pressure. Non-GAAP operating margin: ~22% (FY22) → 30.5% (FY24) → 33.0% (FY25) → 34.1% (FY26). FY27 guide: 34.3%.
• Activist history (late 2022–mid 2023): simultaneous positions from Starboard Value, Elliott Management, ValueAct Capital, Inclusive Capital (Jeff Ubben) and Third Point. ValueAct's Mason Morfit added to the board January 2023; Elliott withdrew slate in March 2023 after Q4 FY23 beat; most cashed out by mid-2023.
• Capital return: $50 bn buyback authorisation announced 26 February 2026 (lifted from $30 bn). $25 bn senior-notes offering issued in 8 tranches (maturities 2028–2066, coupons 4.5%–6.7%) — the largest debt issuance in Salesforce history — funding accelerated buyback. FY26 returned ~$14 bn to shareholders. Quarterly dividend $0.44 (raised 5.8% from $0.416 in Feb 2026; $1.76 annualised; payout ratio 22.6%).
• Per-cloud monetisation: 78% of enterprise customers run Hyperforce multi-cloud deployments across AWS / GCP / Azure / Alibaba.

Subsidy / regulatory credit dependency: Salesforce has no material reliance on government subsidies, tax credits or regulatory credits. Revenue is product-sale and subscription-driven.

5. Financial Health

Five-year fiscal trend (years ended 31 January, $ billions unless noted):

Metric	FY22	FY23	FY24	FY25	FY26
Revenue	26.49	31.35	34.86	37.90	41.5
YoY growth	+25%	+18%	+11%	+9%	+10%
Non-GAAP operating margin	~19%	~22.5%	~30.5%	33.0%	34.1%
GAAP operating margin	~2%	~3.3%	~14.4%	19.0%	20.1%
Operating cash flow	6.0	7.1	10.2	13.1	15.0
Free cash flow	5.3	6.3	9.5	12.4	14.4

Last five quarters — revenue and non-GAAP operating margin (Salesforce does not break out GAAP gross margin per cloud at the granularity required for a quarterly bar/line, so non-GAAP operating margin is used here as the closest comparable profitability metric):

Quarter	Period end	Revenue	Subs & Support	Non-GAAP op margin	Non-GAAP EPS
Q4 FY25	31 Jan 2025	$9.99 bn (+8%)	$9.45 bn (+8%)	33.1%	$2.78
Q1 FY26	30 Apr 2025	$9.83 bn (+8%)	$9.30 bn (+8%)	~32.3%	~$2.58
Q2 FY26	31 Jul 2025	$10.24 bn (+10%)	$9.7 bn (+11%)	34.3%	beat
Q3 FY26	31 Oct 2025	$10.3 bn (+9%)	$9.7 bn (+10%)	35.5%	$3.25 (+34.9%)
Q4 FY26	31 Jan 2026	$11.2 bn (+12%)	$10.7 bn (+13%)	~33.5%	$3.81

Balance sheet at 31 January 2026: cash & equivalents $7.33 bn; short-term investments $2.24 bn (combined ~$9.6 bn); long-term debt $10.44 bn; total debt ~$17.18 bn (including $25 bn senior-notes issuance funding the buyback); goodwill $57.94 bn; total stockholders' equity $59.14 bn. Diluted weighted-average shares for FY25 were 974.0 m; latest snapshot post-buybacks ~818 m. 3-year buyback total ~$28 bn with diluted share count down only ~4% due to SBC dilution.

6. Valuation & Market Data

Metric	Value (as of 1 May 2026)
Share price	$183.82 (close, +4.13% on 1 May)
Market cap	$150.37 bn
Enterprise value	$158.52 bn
P/E (trailing)	23.57
P/E (forward)	13.92
Price / Sales	3.62
EV / Sales	3.82
EV / EBITDA	12.63
Price / FCF	10.44
PEG ratio	0.87
Dividend yield	0.96%
Annualised dividend	$1.76 ($0.44 quarterly)
Beta	1.29
Short interest	74.08 m shares (9.06% of float)
Days to cover	~1.68 (avg vol 13.62 m)
Put / call ratio	1.10 (vs 52-wk avg 1.0; +15.1% in last 5 days)
Put open interest	312,925 contracts (vs 52-wk avg 278,446)
1-year price change	~−32%

7. What Are They Building / What's Coming?

• Agentforce 360 (GA October 2025): announced at Dreamforce 2025 (13 October 2025). Components include Agentforce Builder (conversational dev studio), Agent Script (scripting language), Agentforce Voice (natural conversation; 80% of inquiries start by phone) and Agentforce Vibes (AI coding partner; v2.0 announced TDX April 2026).
• Agentforce metrics (FY26): 12,000 customers as of Dreamforce 2025; 29,000 cumulative deals closed by FY26 end (+50% Q/Q in Q4); >60% of Q4 Agentforce/Data 360 bookings from existing-customer expansion; 50% Q/Q increase in customers running Agentforce in production; 19 trillion tokens processed; 2.4 bn Agentic Work Units (771 m in Q4 alone).
• Salesforce Headless 360 (April 2026): announced at TDX 2026 (15–17 April). Entire Salesforce / Agentforce / Slack platforms exposed as APIs, MCP and CLI. 60+ new MCP tools; 30+ preconfigured coding skills for Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Windsurf; new experience layer rendering interactions across Slack, Voice, WhatsApp.
• Data Cloud / Data 360: renamed in 2025; Agentforce + Data 360 combined ARR $2.9 bn (+200% YoY) at FY26 end; includes $1.1 bn Informatica Cloud ARR contribution.
• Acquisitions:
  • Own Company — $1.9 bn cash; closed 18 November 2024 (data protection, archiving, security, MDM).
  • Apromore — definitive agreement Sept 2025; closed 3 November 2025 (process mining/intelligence, integrated into Agentforce process automation).
  • Informatica — definitive agreement 27 May 2025 ($25/share cash, ~$8 bn equity value); closed 18 November 2025 ahead of schedule. FY26 included $399 m partial-period contribution. Expected accretive within 12 months.
• Strategic AI partnerships: OpenAI — major Dreamforce 2025 partnership including Agentforce 360 inside ChatGPT, GPT-5 selectable in Atlas Reasoning Engine and Prompt Builder, Agentforce Sales App in ChatGPT, Slack-ChatGPT-Codex integration, Agentic Commerce Protocol checkout. Anthropic — expanded Oct 2025 with Claude available in Agentforce for regulated industries and Claude integrated into Slack. Google Cloud (Hyperforce option, Agent2Agent (A2A) protocol). Member of Agentic AI Foundation.
• Project "Agent Albert": reports indicate Salesforce plans to unveil by end of 2026 a new AI platform that "automatically studies its users and takes actions on their behalf".

8. Competitive Landscape

According to IDC's 2025 Worldwide Semiannual Software Tracker (CRM market, 2024 data), Salesforce ranked #1 globally for the 12th consecutive year, with more CRM revenue than Microsoft + Oracle + Adobe + SAP combined.

Vendor	2024 CRM market share	Notes
Salesforce	~20.7%	#1 globally and in North America, Latin America, Western Europe and Asia-Pacific (incl. Japan)
Microsoft Dynamics 365	5.2%	Bundled with M365; aggressive Copilot pricing
Oracle Fusion CX	4.1%	Database/ERP-anchored CX suite
HubSpot	3.4–5.6%	SMB-led growth (range reflects different IDC slices)
SAP CX	3.1%	ERP-tied CX suite

Direct competitors by segment: Sales/Service Cloud — Microsoft Dynamics 365, Oracle Fusion CX, HubSpot, Zoho, Pega, ServiceNow (service); Marketing Cloud — Adobe Experience Cloud, HubSpot, Oracle Marketing; Commerce Cloud — Adobe Commerce / Magento, Shopify B2B, SAP Commerce; Platform / Slack — Microsoft Teams + Power Platform, ServiceNow, Atlassian; Data Cloud / Integration — Snowflake, Databricks, Microsoft Fabric, AWS, Boomi, Workato.

9. Leadership and Ownership

Executive team:

• Marc Benioff — Chair, CEO and Co-founder (since 1999). ~3.47% economic stake (largest individual holder).
• Robin Washington — President & Chief Operating and Financial Officer (combined COO + CFO role since 21 March 2025). Previously Lead Independent Director from 2022 and director from 2013; ex-CFO of Gilead Sciences.
• Srinivas "Srini" Tallapragada — President & Chief Engineering and Customer Success Officer; led Lightning, Einstein, Hyperforce and Data Cloud development.
• Parker Harris — Co-founder and CTO.
• Brian Millham — former President & COO; retired 1 May 2025 after 25 years; transitioned to advisory role.

Ownership: ~88% institutional, ~5.5% insider, ~6.5% retail. Top holders: Vanguard Group ~8.7%, BlackRock ~7.5%, State Street ~4.9%. Marc Benioff (individual) ~32.06 m shares = ~3.47% (the largest single individual holder; ~22 m reported on Form 4 incl. 11.93 m direct + 10.0 m via Marc Benioff Fund LLC + 107,000 in trust).

Recent insider Form 4 transactions:

Date	Insider	Role	Type	Shares	Price	10b5-1?
22 Apr 2026	Marc Benioff	CEO	Tax withholding on PSU vesting	22,560 withheld	$189.80	n/a (vesting)
22 Apr 2026	S. Tallapragada	Pres. Eng/CS	RSU conversion (1,785) + 14,667 withheld	—	—	No
Mar 2026	Marc Benioff	CEO	PSO grant	233,404 options	$280.62 strike	Grant
Mar 2026	Marc Benioff	CEO	RSU performance vesting	45,474	—	Vesting
Mar 2026	S. Tallapragada	Pres. Eng/CS	RSU exercise (9,849) + 4,429 withheld	—	$195.38	No
Mar 2026	S. Tallapragada	Pres. Eng/CS	PSO grant	58,352 options	$280.62 strike	Grant
15 Sep 2025	Marc Benioff	CEO	Option exercise & sale (10b5-1)	2,250	$241.28–$244.35	Yes (plan adopted 9 Jan 2025)

Benioff runs an ongoing pre-set Rule 10b5-1 plan with regular small option-exercise-and-sale batches.

10. Risks and Challenges

• Microsoft Copilot bundling / Dynamics 365: Microsoft's M365 distribution advantage and aggressive Copilot pricing pose a structural seat-based threat. Salesforce's pricing model is the most exposed in software to AI-driven seat reduction.
• Agentforce monetisation pace: $800 m ARR is <2% of $41.5 bn total revenue; market questions whether agentic AI re-accelerates the headline number meaningfully or cannibalises seat-based licensing.
• Large enterprise IT budget pressure: FY27 guide of 10–11% growth implies no meaningful re-acceleration. Growth has compressed from 25% (FY22) to 8–11%.
• FX exposure: 100–200 bps constant-currency impact in recent quarters.
• Informatica integration risk: $8 bn deal — the largest since Slack ($27.7 bn) — with execution and revenue-synergy delivery key.
• Benioff key-man risk: concentrated leadership; X account activity occasionally controversial.
• Activist re-engagement risk: 2022–23 saw simultaneous activist campaigns; ecosystem remains attentive. NLPC has filed a cumulative-voting proposal at the May 2026 AGM.
• AI cannibalisation of seat licensing: agents replacing seats could compress per-seat revenue at the same time as Agentforce monetises consumption.
• Stock-based compensation dilution: 3-year buybacks ~$28 bn, share count down only ~4%.
• Stock decline: down ~32% over trailing 12 months despite strong fundamentals; market cap dropped from peak ~$300 bn to ~$150 bn.

11. Recent Developments

• 30 April 2026 — Marc Benioff announced "Salesforce Headless 360" on X — entire Salesforce / Agentforce / Slack platforms exposed as APIs, MCP and CLI; AI agents (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Windsurf) can access data, workflows and tasks directly in Slack, Voice, or anywhere else.
• 27 April 2026 — Fortune interview on hiring 1,000 grads / interns "to ride the AI exponential" — counter-narrative on AI displacing entry-level jobs.
• 22 April 2026 — Form 4 filings — Benioff (22,560 shares withheld for tax on PSU vesting at $189.80) and Tallapragada (RSU conversion / withholding).
• 15–17 April 2026 — TDX 2026 (San Francisco): Salesforce Headless 360 launched; Agentforce Vibes 2.0; AgentExchange marketplace; 60+ new MCP tools; 30+ coding skills.
• 9 April 2026 — Ex-dividend date for $0.44/share quarterly dividend.
• 10 April 2026 — Stock hit 52-week low $163.52.
• March 2026 — Benioff awarded 233,404 PSOs at $280.62 strike. $25 bn senior-notes offering issued in 8 tranches; $25 bn accelerated share repurchase initiated.
• February 2026 — ~Under 1,000 layoffs across Agentforce, marketing, product management and data analytics teams.
• 26 February 2026 — $50 bn buyback authorisation announced (lifted from $30 bn); quarterly dividend raised 5.8% to $0.44.
• 25 February 2026 — Q4 FY26 / FY26 results: Q4 revenue $11.2 bn (+12%); FY26 revenue $41.5 bn (+10%); Agentforce ARR $800 m (+169%); Agentforce + Data 360 ARR $2.9 bn (+200%); 29,000 cumulative Agentforce deals; total RPO $72.4 bn (+14%); current RPO $35.1 bn (+16%); FCF $14.4 bn (+16%); FY27 guide $45.8–46.2 bn (+10–11%).
• 18 November 2025 — Informatica acquisition closed (~$8 bn equity, $25/share, ahead of schedule).
• 3 November 2025 — Apromore acquisition closed (process mining).
• 3 December 2025 — Q3 FY26 results: revenue $10.3 bn (+9%); non-GAAP op margin 35.5%; non-GAAP EPS $3.25 (+34.9%); Agentforce + Data 360 ARR ~$1.4 bn (+114%); Agentforce ARR ~$500 m (+330%).
• 13–15 October 2025 — Dreamforce 2025: Agentforce 360 GA; OpenAI & Anthropic partnerships; Apromore acquisition agreement; Slack-AI integration.

12. Key Dates Coming Up

• 27–28 May 2026 — Q1 FY27 earnings release (period ending 30 April 2026).
• 28 May 2026 — 2026 Annual Stockholders Meeting (record date 21 April 2026; virtual; cumulative-voting proposal from NLPC on ballot).
• ~Early July 2026 — Next quarterly dividend ex-div / record / payment cycle for $0.44.
• Late August 2026 — Q2 FY27 earnings.
• 15–17 September 2026 — Dreamforce 2026 at Moscone Center, San Francisco.
• Early December 2026 — Q3 FY27 earnings.
• April 2027 (typical) — TDX 2027 developer conference.

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