Salesforce shares fall after mixed outlook despite $50b buyback plan

Salesforce shares fell 5% after reporting quarterly results that beat earnings expectations but whose fiscal 2027 revenue outlook trailed Wall Street estimates.

The company posted adjusted earnings of US$3.81 per share on revenue of US$11.2 billion for the fiscal fourth quarter ended Jan. 31, a 12% year-on-year increase.

Net income rose to US$1.94 billion, or US$2.07 per share, up from US$1.71 billion a year earlier.

Salesforce allocated US$50 billion for new share buybacks and increased its 2030 revenue target to US$63 billion, including contributions from its Informatica acquisition.

The company’s remaining performance obligation stood at US$35.1 billion, above StreetAccount estimates.

For Q1 FY2027, Salesforce projected adjusted EPS of US$3.11 to US$3.13 on revenue of US$11.03 billion to US$11.08 billion.

🔗 Source: CNBC

🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

Agentforce’s fast revenue rise runs into paid adoption

Salesforce’s Agentforce AI platform rose from just over $100 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) across its first two quarters to more than $800 million by fiscal year end.
That total comes from a tight group of users. At its last major conference, about half of the 12,500 customers using Agentforce were on paid plans 1.
CEO Marc Benioff spoke about the gap between the tech and real use. Salesforce is sending engineers to help customers move from trials into production 1.
Salesforce also faces slower growth in Sales Cloud and Service Cloud, which has eased to 7%. That puts more weight on new AI revenue 2.

Enterprise AI pricing moves toward usage

Investors reacted quietly to Salesforce’s results. The shift across software leans toward charging for AI use, rather than per-user licenses.
Salesforce is pushing that change through “Flex Credits,” a consumption pricing model for Data Cloud and Agentforce 2.
Box takes a similar route by packaging AI into higher-tier suites. That approach supports 20 to 40% per-seat price increases, instead of relying on more users 3.
This model ties software spend to what AI produces. It changes sales compensation, reshapes customer success work, and alters how software-as-a-service (SaaS) businesses forecast revenue 2.