Core Viewpoint - Salesforce's recent quarterly results indicate a stable performance with most key metrics meeting or slightly exceeding expectations, but revenue growth remains stagnant and profit margin expansion has stalled [1][6]. Revenue Growth - Subscription revenue grew by 8.3% year-over-year, slightly above the expected 7.4%, showing initial signs of stabilization. However, constant currency growth remained flat at 9%, indicating no significant improvement [1][2]. - Traditional IT spending areas such as sales, customer service, and marketing continue to show weak growth, reflecting a lack of enthusiasm in IT budget allocations among European and American companies due to economic concerns and tariff impacts [1][2]. AI and Cloud Performance - The platform cloud and data analytics segments, which are more closely related to AI, performed significantly better, exceeding expectations by approximately 5 percentage points and 4 percentage points, respectively [2]. - The growth in platform cloud is likely driven by increased corporate spending on AI, despite overall IT budgets not increasing [2]. Leading Indicators - The nominal year-over-year growth rate of cRPO (contracted revenue not yet recognized) was 12.1%, appearing to accelerate compared to the previous quarter. However, this was primarily due to favorable currency effects, with constant currency growth remaining at 11% [3]. Profit Margins - Gross profit for subscription revenue was $7.67 billion, a year-over-year increase of 9.4%. However, this was below expectations, and the growth rate showed signs of slowing [3][4]. - The subscription business's gross margin decreased by 0.5 percentage points quarter-over-quarter, with year-over-year growth narrowing to less than 1 percentage point, indicating a stagnation in the upward trend of gross margins [4]. Expense Management - Total operating expenses were $5.62 billion, a year-over-year increase of 6.8%, which was lower than revenue growth, leading to a slight decrease in the expense ratio by approximately 0.4 percentage points [3][4]. - Marketing expenses, the largest component of total expenses, were $3.43 billion, growing by 5.9%, without significant increases due to AI promotions [3]. Operating Profit - Operating profit increased by 13.6% year-over-year to $1.94 billion, with a slight margin improvement of 1.2 percentage points. However, the rate of profit margin expansion has significantly slowed compared to previous fiscal years [4][5]. Cash Flow - Free cash flow for the quarter was approximately $6.3 billion, exceeding market expectations of $5.89 billion, but only reflecting a 4% year-over-year growth, indicating the company is in an investment cycle [4][5]. Guidance - For the next quarter, Salesforce guided revenue growth at 8% to 9% in constant currency, which is better than market expectations but does not indicate significant acceleration [4][5].

Core Insights - Salesforce (CRM) reported first-quarter fiscal 2026 non-GAAP earnings of $2.58 per share, exceeding the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 1.6%, with a year-over-year improvement of 5.7% [1] - The company's fiscal first-quarter revenues reached $9.83 billion, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 0.95%, and reflecting a year-over-year increase of 7.7% [1][2] Financial Performance - Revenues from Subscription and Support, which account for 94.6% of total revenues, increased 8.3% year over year to $9.3 billion, while Professional Services and Other revenues decreased 3% to $532 million [3] - Non-GAAP operating income rose 8.6% to $3.17 billion, with the non-GAAP operating margin expanding by 20 basis points to 32.3% [6] Segment Performance - Sales Cloud revenues grew 7% year over year to $2.1 billion, Service Cloud revenues increased 7% to $2.3 billion, Marketing & Commerce Cloud revenues rose 4% to $1.3 billion, and Platform & Other revenues were up 14% to $2.0 billion [4] - Revenues from the Integration and Analytics division grew 10% year over year to $1.5 billion [4] Geographic Performance - Revenues from the Americas, which represent 66.3% of total revenues, increased 7% year over year to $6.5 billion, while EMEA revenues grew 9% to $2.3 billion and Asia Pacific revenues rose 11% to $1.0 billion [5] Cash Flow and Balance Sheet - Salesforce ended the fiscal first quarter with cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities totaling $17.41 billion, up from $14 billion in the previous quarter [7] - The company generated an operating cash flow of $6.5 billion and a free cash flow of $6.3 billion during the quarter [7] Future Guidance - For Q2 fiscal 2026, Salesforce projects total sales between $10.11 billion and $10.16 billion, indicating 8-9% growth year over year, with a consensus estimate currently at $10.02 billion [9] - The company anticipates non-GAAP earnings per share in the range of $2.76-$2.78 for Q2, with a consensus mark of $2.72, reflecting a year-over-year growth of 6.3% [10] - For fiscal 2026, Salesforce expects revenues between $41 billion and $41.3 billion, an increase from the previous guidance of $40.5-$40.9 billion [10][11]