New York, May 27, 2026, 17:04 (EDT)
- Salesforce gave second-quarter revenue guidance that missed Wall Street targets, taking the shine off a first-quarter sales beat.
- The stock last changed hands at $177.51, off 0.8%, after falling in extended trading earlier.
- Agentforce and Data 360 are still the test. Investors want to see if AI agents actually bring in new revenue instead of just swapping out older software seats.
Salesforce shares edged lower late Wednesday. The company put out a second-quarter revenue outlook that missed what Wall Street was looking for, adding to pressure on a stock that’s already been under fire this year over AI concerns in the software sector. The stock last traded down 0.8% at $177.51, after Reuters reported it fell by about 3% after hours.
Salesforce is pushing to prove Agentforce, its AI-agent product, can be the next driver for growth. Now, it has to convince investors before AI from Anthropic, OpenAI and others chips away at its core software. The company’s stock is down almost 33% in 2026, after a more than 20% drop last year, Reuters reported.
Salesforce posted first-quarter revenue of $11.13 billion for the quarter ended April 30, topping Wall Street’s average estimate of $11.05 billion, LSEG data showed, according to Reuters. The company said GAAP earnings per share climbed 52% year over year to $2.42, with adjusted EPS up 50% to $3.88.
Salesforce is guiding for second-quarter revenue between $11.27 billion and $11.35 billion, a bit below the $11.36 billion LSEG consensus. It’s a slight miss and investors wanted to see more pickup, so shares slipped.
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff on a call said agentic AI is the “biggest growth opportunity” for the company and its clients. President and CFO Robin Washington said Salesforce is sticking with guidance for “organic revenue acceleration” in the second half of fiscal 2027. MarketScreener
Agentforce and Data 360 annual recurring revenue hit almost $3.4 billion, Salesforce said, more than doubling from last year. Agentforce ARR was $1.2 billion. Over half of Agentforce and Data 360 bookings for the quarter came from existing customers.
Salesforce said current remaining performance obligation, or cRPO, was up 14% to $33.6 billion. This number, used by investors to estimate future demand, counts contracted revenue due in the next year. Free cash flow increased 4% to $6.6 billion, the company said.
Mixed signals in the space. Snowflake, a data software rival, boosted its full-year product revenue outlook and signed a $6 billion AWS agreement linked to AI infrastructure, which sent Snowflake’s shares up sharply after hours. But Salesforce’s numbers had investors still debating if AI helps or hurts its subscription business.
Risk is now more up front. Bank of America’s Tal Liani this month put coverage back on Salesforce with an Underperform and a $160 target. Liani pointed to slow customer growth, softer upselling, and what he called an “underwhelming” Agentforce monetization track. He also mentioned competition from ServiceNow, Google, Adobe, and Shopify inside parts of Salesforce’s business. Investing.com
AI agents might speed up the shift away from seat-based subscriptions at Salesforce, cutting into user fees sooner than the company can build up usage-based AI revenue. “Enterprise entrenchment is not a growth strategy,” Liani said. Investing.com
Salesforce lifted the midpoint of its full-year fiscal 2027 revenue guidance, now seeing $45.9 billion to $46.2 billion, and kept its non-GAAP operating margin target at 34.3%. But the company trimmed its outlook for operating and free cash flow growth to about 4% to 5%, citing a $25 billion debt issuance linked to an accelerated share buyback.
Salesforce started its earnings call at 5 p.m. Eastern, right after markets closed. So far, the market is holding the same view it has in recent months: Salesforce earnings are positive, but investors still want to see quicker results from the company’s AI plans before the stock moves.
