Salesforce Q1 Earnings Preview: Adjusted EPS Guidance of $3.11-$3.13
Salesforceis scheduled to report results of its first fiscal quarter after the market close on Wednesday, May 27, with a conference call scheduled for 5:00 pm ET. What to watch for:GUIDANCE:Along with its fourth quarter earnings report, Salesforce guided to FY27 adjusted earnings per share of $13.11-$13.19 on a revenue of $45.8B-$46.2B, which compared to analyst estimates of $13.12 and $46.01B, respectively, at the time of the report. Consensus for EPS has since risen to $13.23, while estimates for revenue have jumped to $46.11B. The company also provided Q1 EPS guidance of $3.11-$3.13 on revenue of $11.03B-$11.08B. Consensus for earnings, which was at $3.01 at the time, has increased to $3.13, and consensus for revenue, which was at $10.98B, has risen to $11.06B.PARTNERSHIPS, FEATURES:In February, GoDaddyannounced an integration with Salesforce's MuleSoft Agent Fabric. In March, the company and Formula 1announced the launch of a new fan companion agent to scale and personalize engagement for F1's 827M global fans. Salesforce also announced in March the U.S. Department of Labor has modernized its National Contact Center with Salesforce and was rolling out Agentforce to provide more personalized support. The company also reported the deployment of a new agentic operating system to simplify incident response and improve Veteran care across its more than 150 Department of Veterans Affairs medical and outpatient centers. Additionally in March, Bandwidthannounced it had partnered with the newly launched Agentforce Contact Center. Docusignalso announced a new integration with Slack, which brings its Intelligent Agreement Management platform directly into Slackbot. In April, Salesforce announced an expanded collaboration with Engine. Additionally in April, Google Cloudand the company announced an expanded partnership enabling AI agents to execute end-to-end workflows across both platforms by solving the long-standing challenge of fragmented data and disconnected systems. Unisyshas announced an expansion of its collaboration with Salesforce to strengthen the delivery of its on-site technology support.ACQUISITIONS:In February, Salesforce announced it had signed a definitive agreement to acquire Cimulate. The company said, "The acquisition will strengthen Salesforce's investment in Agentforce Commerce by accelerating improvements to search and discovery, helping retailers deliver more personalized, contextual, and conversational shopping experiences." Salesforce completed its acquisition of Cimulate on March 3.The company also announced in February a definitive agreement to acquire Momentum, a conversational insights and revenue orchestration platform. The company said, "The acquisition will extend the ability of Agentforce 360 and Slackbot to ingest and analyze unstructured data from third-party video channels and apply those insights directly to agentic workflows." Salesforce completed its acquisition of Momentum on March 2.ANALYST VIEWS:Deutsche Bank expects Salesforce to report a "seasonally slow but steady" start to fiscal 2027. It believes the company will likely meet "muted" fiscal Q1 expectations amid a "tenuous backdrop" for software-as-a-service. Deutsche's field conversations leave it expecting less upside to Salesforce's key metrics relative to recent quarters. The earnings report is unlikely to bring meaningful estimate revisions which "is required to sway sentiment and catalyze the stock," the analyst said. The firm has a Buy rating on the shares with a $255 price target.Meanwhile, BofA reinstated coverage of Salesforce with an Underperform rating and $160 price target. Salesforce remains "a deeply entrenched platform," but the firm expects a structural reset driven by AI transition, the analyst said. This raises three core concerns, namely muted net new customer additions, limited upsell potential, and an "underwhelming" AI monetization pathway, the analyst added.Citi lowered the firm's price target on Salesforce to $188 from $200 and kept a Neutral rating on the shares ahead of the Q1 report. Citi reduced its fiscal 2027 estimates towards the low end of Salesforce's outlook after its fieldwork indicated lengthening deal cycles and greater portfolio optimization at renewals.
