- Company name
- Salesforce
- Sector
- CRM & enterprise software
- About
- Salesforce sells cloud software for customer relationship management (CRM). Its products help companies with sales, service, marketing and commerce, and they include Slack, Tableau, MuleSoft and Data 360. Agentforce is its platform for AI agents that do work for employees and customers. Salesforce bought Informatica, a data management company, in November 2025. It bought Contentful, a content platform, on September 1, 2026, and Fin, formerly Intercom, a company that makes AI agents for customer service, on September 10, 2026. Revenue was $41.5 billion in fiscal 2026 and $22.5 billion in the first half of fiscal 2027, and most of it is subscription and support revenue. Its fiscal year ends on January 31, and it is based in San Francisco.
- Thesis
- The market doubts that Salesforce can grow faster when AI agents can do work that paid user seats do now. Without Informatica, revenue grew about 6% in Q2 fiscal 2027 (a calculation from the release figures), much slower than in the past. Salesforce also uses more debt and more purchases. In March 2026, it sold $25.0 billion of notes to pay for a $25 billion accelerated share repurchase, and debt rose to $39.5 billion at July 31, 2026. After Informatica, it bought Contentful and Fin in September 2026, and on October 20, 2026 it agreed to buy Braze for about $5.66 billion. Investors fear that purchases hide slow organic growth. For the gap to close, three things must be true. Organic revenue growth must accelerate in the second half of fiscal 2027, as management expects, with current remaining performance obligation growth near the 14% of Q2. Agentforce and Data 360 ARR, nearly $3.9 billion at July 31, 2026, must keep growing and add revenue instead of replacing seats. Free cash flow must grow 4% to 5% in fiscal 2027, as guided, and keep growing, so that debt can fall while Salesforce moves toward its fiscal 2030 revenue target of more than $63 billion. The Q3 fiscal 2027 report, expected in early December 2026, is the first test, and the Q4 report with the fiscal 2028 guidance, expected in late February 2027, is the next. If these checks pass, the gap can close over the next four to six quarters. The main reason it may not close is AI agents from other companies, which can lower the number of paid seats that customers buy.
- Risks
- Salesforce sells most of its software by user seat. AI agents can do work that people do now, so customers can need fewer seats. Agentforce must add more revenue than the seats it replaces, and AI agents from model makers and other software companies compete for the same work.
Debt rose to $39.5 billion at July 31, 2026, from $14.4 billion at January 31, 2026, mainly to pay for the accelerated share repurchase. Interest expense was $790 million in the first half of fiscal 2027, up from $135 million a year earlier. Higher debt leaves less room for purchases or a downturn.
Salesforce bought Informatica, Contentful and Fin and agreed to buy Braze within one year. Purchases make organic growth hard to see, and a purchase that does not perform can cause goodwill impairments. Goodwill was $59.3 billion at July 31, 2026.
Results include gains and losses on strategic investments. Gains added $2.43 to GAAP EPS in Q2 fiscal 2027, so EPS can fall when these gains do not repeat.
- Balance sheet
- Cash: $11.4B
Debt: $39.5B
Net debt: $28.1B
Interest cover: 5.9×
Undrawn credit line: $5.0B, to October 2029
Debt due within 12 months: $0.0M
Last debt due: 2066
Salesforce funds itself with senior notes and a term loan. Debt principal was $39.5 billion at July 31, 2026, up from $14.4 billion at January 31, 2026. In March 2026, it sold $25.0 billion of notes with rates of 4.50% to 6.70% to pay for the accelerated share repurchase, and it signed a $6.0 billion floating-rate term loan due March 2031 that repaid the $6.0 billion of loans for the Informatica purchase. No debt is due before March 2028, and the last notes are due in March 2066. Cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities were $11.4 billion at July 31, 2026. The $5.0 billion revolving credit facility, which matures in October 2029, was undrawn. Interest cover is operating income of $4,678 million divided by interest expense of $790 million for the first half of fiscal 2027. After the quarter, Salesforce paid about $1.5 billion for Contentful and about $3.6 billion for Fin in cash, and the Braze purchase of about $5.66 billion is still to come. Free cash flow was $14.4 billion in fiscal 2026, and the company expects growth of about 4% to 5% in fiscal 2027. $22.9 billion of share repurchase authorization was left at July 31, 2026.
As of 2026-07-31.
- Checkpoints
- Dec 2, 2026 (estimate): Q3 fiscal 2027 results: organic growth. Pending. Watch: Revenue at or above the guided $11.42 billion to $11.5 billion, current remaining performance obligation growth near 14% and signs of faster organic growth pass; slower growth or lower fiscal 2027 guidance fail.
Feb 2027 (estimate): Fiscal 2027 results and fiscal 2028 guidance. Pending. Watch: Free cash flow growth of about 4% to 5% in fiscal 2027 and fiscal 2028 guidance that keeps the path to the fiscal 2030 target pass; lower free cash flow or weak fiscal 2028 guidance fail.
- Recent events
- 2026-10-20: Salesforce agreed to buy Braze, a customer engagement platform, for about $5.66 billion in enterprise value. Braze shareholders receive $47.50 in cash per share. Salesforce expects the deal to close in fiscal 2028, after approval by Braze shareholders and regulators. It did not change its fiscal 2027 guidance.
2026-09-16: Salesforce held its Investor Day. Its presentation (8-K) kept the fiscal 2030 revenue target of more than $63 billion, which includes Informatica. It said that it expects to return 190% of fiscal 2027 free cash flow to shareholders. It also said that it expects an average price of $182 for the shares of the $25 billion accelerated share repurchase and a share count reduction of 14% or more from it.
2026-09-10: Salesforce completed the purchase of Fin, formerly Intercom, a company that makes AI agents for customer service. The agreement of June 2026 gave a price of about $3.6 billion in cash.
2026-09-01: Salesforce completed the purchase of Contentful, a content platform. The agreement of May 2026 gave a price of about $1.5 billion in cash, net of the Contentful shares that Salesforce already owned.
2026-08-26: Salesforce reported Q2 fiscal 2027 results. Revenue rose 11% to $11.3 billion, including $456 million from Informatica. Current remaining performance obligation rose 14% to $33.5 billion. Non-GAAP EPS was $5.90, which includes a large gain on strategic investments, and the non-GAAP operating margin was 34.1%. Agentforce and Data 360 ARR reached nearly $3.9 billion. Salesforce raised its fiscal 2027 revenue guidance to $46.1 billion to $46.4 billion, which includes Contentful and Fin, and kept its guidance for free cash flow growth of about 4% to 5%.
2026-05-27: Salesforce reported Q1 fiscal 2027 results. Revenue rose 13% to $11.1 billion, including $444 million from Informatica, and non-GAAP EPS was $3.88. Free cash flow was $6.6 billion. Salesforce returned $27.5 billion to shareholders in the quarter, mainly through the accelerated share repurchase.
2026-03-13: Salesforce sold $25.0 billion of senior notes, due from 2028 to 2066, and used the money for a $25 billion accelerated share repurchase. It received about 103 million shares at the start, about 80% of the shares it expects, and expects the final settlement in Q3 fiscal 2027. In March 2026, it also signed a $6.0 billion term loan due 2031 to repay the loans for the Informatica purchase.
2026-02-25: Salesforce reported fiscal 2026 results. Revenue rose 10% to $41.5 billion, and free cash flow rose 16% to $14.4 billion. The board approved a new share repurchase program of $50 billion and raised the quarterly dividend 5.8% to $0.44 per share.