CRM

Our analysts just identified a stock with the potential to be the next Nvidia. Tell us how you invest and we'll show you why it's our #1 pick. Tap here. - Achieved record financial results driven by accelerated commercial deposit growth and strong performance across diversified fee-based businesses. - Expanded the commercial sales force by 14% year-to-date, with over two-thirds of these hires occurring in Q3 to drive future customer acquisition. - Commercial deposit growth of approximately $600 million was fueled by new relational and transactional wins, supported by enhanced treasury management platforms. - Loan growth remained modest as solid origination levels were offset by higher-than-expected payoffs in the multifamily commercial real estate sector. - Operational efficiency improved to 56.8%, reflecting a continued focus on disciplined expense management, while investments in AI-enabled Salesforce capabilities are supporting long-term efficiency objectives. - Wealth management reached record assets of $18.6 billion, benefiting from advisor additions and increased wallet share from existing customers. - Management expects loan growth to accelerate toward mid-single-digits in 2027 as structural runoff headwinds abate and new hires reach full productivity. - Net interest margin is projected to remain stable to slightly higher, assuming the current interest rate environment and curve shape persist. - The company raised its full-year 2026 non-interest income guidance to a range of $295 million to $305 million based on broad-based momentum. - Capital deployment priorities remain focused on supporting organic growth first, followed by strategic M&A and opportunistic share repurchases. - M&A strategy continues to target banks in the $1 billion to $5 billion range that complement the existing footprint in Northern New Jersey and Philadelphia. - Optimized the funding profile by reducing brokered deposits by $428 million and fully paying off Federal Home Loan Bank advances. - The Blue Foundry acquisition integration is performing ahead of original pro forma expectations, strengthening the bank's presence in Northern New Jersey. - Asset quality metrics improved linked-quarter, with net charge-offs declining to 0.14% and non-performing assets dropping to 0.52% of total assets. - Share repurchase activity accelerated in Q3 with $56.1 million in buybacks, though management expects this pace to moderate as organic growth capital needs increase. One stock. Nvidia-level potential. 30M+ investors trust Moby to find it first. Get the pick. Tap here. - Growth was split between $400 million in seasonal municipal inflows and nearly $600 million in core commercial relational wins. - Management attributes the commercial success to recent investments in treasury management and the hiring of 30 new high-caliber bankers. - Commercial balances were pressured by accelerated payoffs in the multifamily sector as the market became more competitive with non-bank players. - Fulton is maintaining customer relationships but choosing to let certain assets go when pricing or terms do not meet internal discipline. - Spot deposit costs were 1.90% in September, with approximately 70% of the municipal portfolio being indexed and reacting immediately to Fed moves. - Historical cycle betas were just under 40%, though management noted the current cycle has unique characteristics compared to previous ones. - Management targets a medium-term securities-to-assets ratio of approximately 17%, up from current levels. - New cash flows are being reinvested into shorter-duration securities with yields well into the 5% range.

- DocuSign recently expanded its more than 20 year Salesforce relationship by embedding its Intelligent Agreement Management platform into Salesforce, Agentforce, and Slack, and also launched DocuSign PDF Editor to connect desktop document preparation directly into its IAM and eSignature workflows. - Together, the deeper Salesforce integration and new PDF Editor suggest DocuSign is trying to pull more of the agreement lifecycle into its own ecosystem. This can matter for customer stickiness, workflow efficiency, and how much value large enterprises place on its IAM platform. - We will now see how DocuSign's broader IAM footprint inside Salesforce and new PDF Editor could influence the existing investment narrative. Capture this agreement-automation momentum by scanning a curated set of SaaS and workflow platforms with resilient unit economics in the 21 high quality undiscovered gems. For DocuSign, the core belief is that agreement management keeps shifting from simple e signatures to full lifecycle automation, where IAM, AI agents, and deep ecosystem hooks become everyday tools for large enterprises. The Salesforce, Agentforce, and Slack integrations point to that direction, but the key near term catalyst still sits in whether IAM mix gains start to show up clearly against today's high single digit revenue growth. The biggest operational risk stays the same. If large deal activity and international expansion do not justify the investment in complex IAM deployments, and if cloud migration and hosting costs keep non GAAP gross margins around the low 80% range for longer, investors could keep treating DocuSign as a slower growth productivity vendor rather than a higher value workflow platform. The Salesforce partnership update is the most relevant development right now. IAM embedded inside Salesforce, Agentforce, and Slack means sales, legal, and operations teams can move from draft to renewal inside the CRM and collaboration stack, with contract data feeding AI agents for term tracking, renewal alerts, and risk surfacing. That connects tightly to the thesis that IAM needs to justify a much larger share of ARR over time. Execution is where this either reinforces or undercuts the current catalyst. If users actually run more of the agreement lifecycle inside Salesforce and Slackforce using DocuSign, that supports larger deal sizes and more durable workflows, which the existing narrative already flags as important. If adoption is slower or complexity causes friction, the risk around large enterprise focus and cautious guidance remains front and center. DocuSign's narrative projects US$4.2b revenue and US$624.4m earnings by 2029. Analysts are assuming 7.9% yearly revenue growth and this implies an earnings increase of about US$294.5m from US$329.9m today. Uncover why DocuSign's fair value indicates a 14% potential downside to its current price, leaving little room for error. One bullish twist you might explore is how some analysts already expected DocuSign to reach about US$4.4b revenue and US$695.3m earnings by 2029, before this Salesforce and PDF Editor news landed. That camp sees IAM as a bigger agreement layer story. If you disagree, that is exactly why comparing multiple narratives can help. Explore 6 other DocuSign fair value estimates, including one that suggests as much as 96% upside from the current price. Disagree with existing narratives? Extraordinary investment returns rarely come from following the herd, so go with your instincts. - A great starting point for your DocuSign research is our analysis highlighting 3 key rewards and 1 important warning sign that could impact your investment decision. - See our latest analysis for DocuSign. The report includes a comprehensive fundamental analysis summarized in a single visual, the Snowflake, making it easy to evaluate DocuSign's overall financial health at a glance. Once you have a view on DocuSign, it can help to compare it with other businesses that share similar quality traits or risk profiles. The Simply Wall St Screener lets you scan the market quickly using fundamentals, so you can build a shortlist that fits your own style and risk tolerance. - If you care most about protection on the downside and steadier fundamentals, start with a basket of 31 resilient stocks with low risk scores that have historically kept risk scores in check. - If balance sheet strength matters to you, focus on companies from the list of solid balance sheet and fundamentals (25 results) where financial resilience and underlying fundamentals are front and center. - If you want ideas that are less crowded but still grounded in strong metrics, broaden your search with a 21 high quality undiscovered gems that filters for quality first. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned. Companies discussed in this article include DOCU. Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email [email protected]

Looking back on sales software stocks' Q2 earnings, we examine this quarter's best and worst performers, including Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) and its peers. Companies need to be able to interact with and sell to their customers as efficiently as possible. This reality coupled with the ongoing migration of enterprises to the cloud drives demand for cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) software that integrates data analytics with sales and marketing functions. The 4 sales software stocks we track reported a satisfactory Q2. As a group, revenues beat analysts' consensus estimates by 1.5% while next quarter's revenue guidance was in line. Thankfully, share prices of the companies have been resilient as they are up 6.1% on average since the latest earnings results. With its cloud-based platform named after its stock ticker symbol CRM (Customer Relationship Management), Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) provides customer relationship management software that helps businesses connect with their customers across sales, service, marketing, and commerce. Salesforce reported revenues of $11.35 billion, up 10.8% year on year. This print was in line with analysts' expectations, and overall, it was a strong quarter for the company with full-year EPS guidance exceeding analysts' expectations and EPS guidance for next quarter topping analysts' expectations. Salesforce delivered the weakest performance against analyst estimates of the whole group. Interestingly, the stock is up 13.9% since reporting and currently trades at $234.20. Is now the time to buy Salesforce? Access our full analysis of the earnings results here, it's free. Operating a platform it calls "RevOS" - short for Revenue Operating System - ZoomInfo (NASDAQ:GTM) provides sales, marketing, and recruiting teams with business intelligence and analytics to identify prospects and deliver targeted outreach. ZoomInfo reported revenues of $310.4 million, up 1.2% year on year, outperforming analysts' expectations by 2.7%. The business had a very strong quarter with an impressive beat of analysts' adjusted operating income estimates and an impressive beat of analysts' annual recurring revenue estimates. ZoomInfo delivered the biggest analyst estimate beat, highest guidance raise, and highest full-year guidance raise in the group. The market seems happy with the results as the stock is up 6.3% since reporting. It currently trades at $3.89. Is now the time to buy ZoomInfo? Access our full analysis of the earnings results here, it's free. Born from the idea that traditional interruptive marketing was becoming less effective, HubSpot (NYSE:HUBS) provides an integrated platform that helps businesses attract, engage, and manage customer relationships through marketing, sales, service, and content management tools. HubSpot reported revenues of $911.7 million, up 19.8% year on year, exceeding analysts' expectations by 1.5%. Still, it was a slower quarter as it posted EPS guidance for next quarter missing analysts' expectations significantly and full-year revenue guidance slightly missing analysts' expectations. HubSpot delivered the fastest revenue growth but had the weakest guidance update and weakest full-year guidance update in the group. The company added 6,988 customers to reach a total of 306,446. As expected, the stock is down 10.7% since the results and currently trades at $223.37. Read our full analysis of HubSpot's results here. Starting as a customer service solution before expanding into a comprehensive software suite, Freshworks (NASDAQ:FRSH) provides AI-powered software-as-a-service solutions that help companies manage customer service, IT support, sales, and marketing functions. Freshworks reported revenues of $237.4 million, up 16% year on year. This print beat analysts' expectations by 1.6%. Overall, it was a strong quarter as it also put up a solid beat of analysts' adjusted operating income estimates and full-year EPS guidance exceeding analysts' expectations. The company added 268 enterprise customers paying more than $5,000 annually to reach a total of 25,356. The stock is up 14.8% since reporting and currently trades at $13.82. Read our full, actionable report on Freshworks here, it's free. Over the past year, investors have been forced to repeatedly answer the same question: what is the market's biggest risk? The answer has changed several times, and each shift has reshaped market leadership. Late in 2025 and early 2026, artificial intelligence became the market's primary uncertainty. Investors questioned whether AI would erode software pricing power and weaken competitive moats as AI made it easier to replicate once-differentiated products. By the spring, technology took a back seat to geopolitics. The U.S. conflict with Iran briefly became the market's dominant narrative, raising concerns about oil prices, inflation, and global growth. But as energy markets remained orderly and fears of a prolonged supply disruption faded, investors quickly turned their focus back to fundamentals. Want to invest in winners with rock-solid fundamentals? Check out our Top 5 Growth Stocks and add them to your watchlist. These companies are poised for growth regardless of the political or macroeconomic climate.

Salesforce has leaned hard into artificial intelligence and large customer wins, yet the share price is still down from where it was five years ago, which puts fresh focus on whether current earnings really back up today's valuation. With the stock recently closing at US$229.13 and a mixed return profile, the central issue for you is how much of the AI and platform story is already reflected in the multiple the market is placing on its profits. - Over the past 5 years, Salesforce shares have declined about 20.0%. This raises the question of whether that weaker long run outcome now lines up more closely with what its earnings can justify. - Recent moves to acquire Listen Labs and Loops, deepen AI partnerships, and secure long term contracts such as the HMRC CRM deal can influence expectations for earnings growth, cash generation and the timing of those cash flows that underpins any valuation built on profits. - There is a second opinion on Salesforce worth weighing. See what analysts think Salesforce's shares could be worth. The issue now is whether Salesforce's current price can be explained by the earnings it is generating today and what investors expect those profits to look like over time. If you want more ideas with a similar AI edge while you weigh Salesforce on its earnings, a focused screen of 38 AI small caps can be a useful next step in your research. For Salesforce, the P/E ratio is a straightforward way to see what you are paying for each dollar of current earnings. The stock trades on roughly 19.5x earnings, using the latest figure, which is well below the broader software industry average of about 31.0x and also under the peer group average near 48.0x. Because the recent Listen Labs and Loops deals reinforce the AI angle, that gap indicates the market is not assigning Salesforce the same earnings multiple as many software rivals that are also emphasizing automation. The tailored fair multiple for Salesforce, which adjusts for its growth profile, margins, sector and size, is above the current 19.5x. On this framework, the stock appears to trade at a discount, even after AI-centric news, large CRM contracts and the share buyback have kept attention on the company. For you as an investor, the key question is whether the business quality and earnings path justify that lower P/E relative to what the model suggests as a more typical earnings multiple. Explore the numbers behind Salesforce's P/E valuation. Simply Wall St Narratives pick up where the Salesforce valuation puzzle leaves off by spelling out which paths for growth, margins and earnings would need to hold for the shares to end up meaningfully higher or lower than today's price. Each scenario ties a fair value estimate to a clear story about Salesforce's potential catalysts and key risks, so you can track over time which version of events is actually unfolding on the Community page. Salesforce community sentiment splits between those who see AI as a fresh monetisation layer and those who worry it brings new security and outage risks. Bull case: 22% undervalued "The new thesis is more interesting: Salesforce may sell governed work." Discover why this Narrative puts Salesforce at 22% undervalued. Bear case: 27% overvalued "The current numbers around revenue guidance, free cash flow, AI adoption, and long term targets imply that Salesforce's share price already reflects a successful AI agent platform..." Explore why this Narrative puts Salesforce at 27% overvalued. You have seen what the current P/E suggests about Salesforce today, but analyst projections for profits a few years out provide a different way to compare with the current share price. Explore where analysts expect Salesforce to be in a few years. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned. Companies discussed in this article include CRM. Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email [email protected]

- Current Price: $140.86 - Target Price (Mid): ~$302 - Street Target: ~$147 - Potential Total Return: ~114% - Annualized IRR: ~20% / year ServiceNow (NOW:NYSE) closed at $140.86 on October 9, about 42% above its June 30 close of $99.28. Forward earnings did little of the lifting. Per TIKR, NTM normalized earnings per share rose about 4% over that stretch, while the NTM P/E climbed from around 23x to around 31x. The stock is still down 8% in 2026, and third-quarter results arrive after the close on October 28, according to the company's investor relations materials. The run had no single catalyst. Shares closed at $95.46 on July 22, the day of the second-quarter report, and at $105.56 on July 27. On August 27, after Salesforce (CRM) reported, the whole group moved: Salesforce rose 22.6%, and the State Street Software and Services ETF gained 5.2% as investors began treating AI as a complement to software. At the Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology Conference on September 9, Chairman and CEO Bill McDermott made the company-specific case. He said seat-based models had not gone away and had "actually increased." He also predicted AI drives "a 4.5x increase in terms of the revenue of the original seat" over a contract's life. That is a forecast, not a reported metric, and ServiceNow has not published the math behind it. He also previewed a simple AI help desk aimed at 500,000 mid-market companies. Flow by ServiceNow, a conversational service desk launched on October 1, fits that description. It targets first-time buyers and satellite teams at existing customers, and it is priced on consumption, with existing customers drawing on AI assists they already hold. Reports differ on timing: SiliconANGLE described Flow as available now, while Constellation Research reported controlled availability with general availability expected in the fourth quarter. Either way, Flow is a live test of McDermott's pitch: revenue that grows with usage. Second-quarter revenue rose 24.01% to $3.987 billion, 1.52% above estimates, per TIKR. ServiceNow'sQ2 results release said strong U.S. federal demand accelerated some on-premise subscription revenue from the third quarter into the second. Non-GAAP free cash flow rose 18.5% to $634 million but missed estimates by 5.99%. Third-quarter guidance calls for subscription revenue of $3.975 billion to $3.980 billion, up 20.5%, and 19.5% growth in cRPO, meaning contract revenue due within 12 months. Analysts on TIKR expect total revenue growth of about 20% and normalized EPS of around $1.03, up about 6%. They project normalized EPS growth of around 23% in 2027. The Street has moved less than the stock. The mean target rose about 4% from June 30, to around $147, as the high target rose from $236 to $248 and the low fell from $85 to $72. At around 31x NTM earnings, ServiceNow trades above Microsoft (MSFT) at around 27x and SAP (SAP) at around 25x, and about double Salesforce at around 16x, per TIKR. - Current Price: $140.86 - Target Price (Mid): ~$302 - Potential Total Return: ~114% - Annualized IRR: ~20% / year TIKR's mid-case targets around $302 by December 31, 2030, about 20% a year over 4.2 years. Street estimates on TIKR, from only six analysts that far out, put 2030 revenue near $32 billion. That is around 19% annual growth from 2025, with normalized net income margins near 29%, and it matches the $32 billion course McDermott set for 2030 on the Q2 call. The primary risk is the multiple: a return to around 23x would undo most of the rally, even if estimates hold. Upside comes if seat expansion and Flow push revenue above that path. The downside comes if cRPO growth falls short of guidance. On October 28, watch cRPO growth against the 19.5% guide. Meeting or beating it despite the federal pull-forward, with subscription revenue at or above $3.980 billion, would support the 31x multiple. A cRPO print below 19.5% would make the June 30 level of around 23x look like the fairer price. TIKR lets you forecast the future price of any stock in less than a minute. Just enter a few assumptions into TIKR's valuation model and see what ServiceNow could be worth. Start from Wall Street consensus estimates, or adjust the inputs to reflect your own view of the business. It's free to use. Analyze ServiceNow on TIKR Free →

When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Stocks closed mixed in Monday's quiet session. While the equity market was open, the bond market was closed for the Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples' Day holidays. No earnings and economic reports were scheduled for release today, though the action picks up starting tomorrow. At the close, the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.4% at 51,850, as Salesforce (CRM) climbed 2.1% on a double upgrade from BofA Securities analyst Tal Liani. Liani lifted his rating on the Dow Jones stock to Buy from Underperform, the equivalent of Sell, and raised his price target to $285 from $160. Salesforce, which is down 12% year to date, hasn't traded near $285 since May 2025. "Our prior concern centered on AI-driven disintermediation," writes Liani in a note to clients. "However, conversations with CIOs and other market participants suggest that large enterprises (more than small-to-medium-sized businesses) are unlikely to replace platforms that house their business logic, data, workflows and compliance frameworks." Looking for more timely stock market news to help gauge the health of your portfolio? Sign up for Closing Bell, our free newsletter that's delivered straight to your inbox at the close of each trading day. And AI, Liani adds, "should deepen dependence on these platforms." He believes that Salesforce has a credible AI strategy and is poised for strong free cash flow generation. Track all markets on TradingView The broader S&P 500 (-0.06% at 7,807) and tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (-0.4% at 27,245), meanwhile, finished slightly lower Monday. The Dow is roughly 4.5% below its record high from early August, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq are perched not far from the all-time peaks they notched last week. Today marked the fourth anniversary of the current bull market. The S&P 500 has gained roughly 118% on a price return basis, "surpassing the historical average of ~90% and ranking as the third-strongest bull market since 1945. Along the way, it has produced 124 record highs, more than double the average (~50) of the seven prior bull markets that lasted at least four years," says Raymond James Chief Investment Officer Larry Adam. Adam adds that volatility has remained below average over the past four years, while earnings growth, rather than multiple expansion, has fueled the bull market's returns. And history suggests there's more room to run. According to Adam, the average bull market lasts about five and a half years, with the fifth year averaging roughly 15% annually and finishing positive 90% of the time. And while today's price action was relatively muted, "this week's inflation data could be a near-term volatility trigger," says Chris Larkin, managing director of Trading and Investing at E*TRADE from Morgan Stanley. First up is the September Consumer Price Index (CPI) report, which will be released Wednesday morning. Headline inflation was "uncomfortably high" in August, writes David Payne, staff economist and reporter for The Kiplinger Letter, in the Kiplinger inflation outlook. The pickup was caused by higher gas and fuel oil prices, shelter costs and airfares, he explains. And with energy costs likely to stay elevated as the situation in the Middle East remains unresolved, Payne believes the annual CPI rate will end the year at 4%, while core CPI, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, will be at 2.7%. As for September, BofA Securities economists expect headline inflation to be higher than in August thanks to higher gas prices, while core inflation could moderate as tariff-related pressures ease. However, the group warns that core CPI could accelerate if airfares keep rising. If this happens, the Fed could be encouraged to raise interest rates in October for a second straight meeting. Larkin believes the new earnings season, which gets rolling this week, "may play a bigger role in shaping the market's momentum into year-end, since it may signal how strong those tailwinds really are." Third-quarter earnings season is expected to be strong. FactSet Senior Earnings Analyst John Butters says current projections are for a 30% year-over-year S&P 500 earnings growth rate. If this is the actual earnings rate, it will mark the third straight quarter of year-over-year earnings growth, he adds. This week's earnings calendar features a handful of blue chip and financial stocks. Johnson & Johnson (JNJ, +0.9%) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM, +0.4%) kick things off bright and early Tuesday morning. - How to Invest for Higher Rates - What to Look Out for in Economic Data This Week (October 12-16) - What's Happening in the Bond Market Right Now (And Should You Adjust Your Portfolio?)

A month has gone by since the last earnings report for Salesforce (CRM). Shares have lost about 5.5% in that time frame, underperforming the S&P 500. But investors have to be wondering, will the recent negative trend continue leading up to its next earnings release, or is Salesforce due for a breakout? Well, first let's take a quick look at its latest earnings report in order to get a better handle on the recent catalysts for Salesforce, Inc. before we dive into how investors and analysts have reacted as of late. Salesforce reported second-quarter fiscal 2027 non-GAAP earnings of $5.90 per share, up 102.7% year over year. The bottom line beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 80.43%. Revenues rose 10.8% year over year to $11.35 billion and topped the consensus mark by 0.25%. Growth reflected momentum in Slack, Agentforce and Informatica. Agentforce and Data 360 ARR reached nearly $3.9 billion, up more than 210% year over year. Subscription and support revenues increased 11.7% year over year to $10.82 billion, including a $440 million contribution from Informatica. Professional services and other revenues declined 3.8% to $525 million. Agentforce Apps generated $7.19 billion in subscription and support revenues, with constant-currency growth of 8%. Data 360, Headless Platform and Other contributed $3.62 billion and grew 20% in constant currency. Regionally, the Americas generated $7.4 billion, Europe $2.76 billion and Asia Pacific $1.17 billion, with constant-currency growth of 10%, 13% and 12%, respectively. Current remaining performance obligation (cRPO) was $33.5 billion, up 14% year over year in constant currency. Total remaining performance obligation reached $66.3 billion, up 11%. Agentforce ARR exceeded $1.5 billion, rising more than 240% year over year. Customers completed 3.2 billion Agentic Work Units in the quarter, up 97% sequentially, taking cumulative volume across Agentforce and Slack to 7.0 billion. Slack posted its fastest quarterly net new annual order value growth since the acquisition, while Slackbot users increased more than 150% quarter over quarter. Bookings from Agentforce One Edition and Agentforce for Apps more than doubled sequentially. Management also noted that first-half net new annual order value growth significantly outpaced annual order value growth. Data 360 ingested 104 trillion records in the quarter, up 355% year over year. Zero Copy ingestion reached 82 trillion records, up 731%, underscoring the rising usage of the company's data layer alongside its agentic products. Non-GAAP operating income increased 10.3% year over year to $3.87 billion. The non-GAAP operating margin was 34.1%, down 20 basis points, while the GAAP operating margin fell 230 basis points to 20.5%. Non-GAAP cost of revenues rose to 20% of revenues from 19%, while general and administrative expenses declined to 5% from 6%. Net gains on strategic investments totaled $2.61 billion compared with $6 million a year earlier. These gains contributed $2.53 per share to second-quarter non-GAAP earnings, providing a substantial boost to the quarter's bottom-line performance. In the second quarter, operating cash flow jumped 71.5% year over year to $1.27 billion, while free cash flow increased 81.5% to $1.10 billion. In the first half of fiscal 2027, the company generated operating and free cash flows of $7.97 billion and $7.65 billion, respectively. Salesforce ended the second quarter with $8.31 billion in cash and cash equivalents and $3.09 billion in marketable securities. The company returned $364 million through dividends during the quarter and continued executing its $25 billion accelerated share repurchase program. Through the first half of fiscal 2027, capital returns totaled $27.9 billion. The share count was down 141 million shares, or 15%, year over year. Salesforce raised its fiscal 2027 revenue guidance to $46.10-$46.40 billion from $45.90-$46.20 billion. The $200 million increase, or $300 million in constant currency, reflects $100 million of organic growth and $200 million tied to the pending Contentful and Fin acquisitions, partly offset by a $100 million foreign-exchange headwind. Non-GAAP operating margin guidance remains at 34.3%. Salesforce lifted its fiscal 2027 non-GAAP earnings outlook to $16.67-$16.71 per share from $14.06-$14.12. It continues to expect operating cash flow and free cash flow growth of approximately 4%-5% year over year. Updated guidance incorporates the anticipated contributions from Contentful and Fin and is conditional upon the transactions closing. For the third quarter of fiscal 2027, CRM expects revenues of $11.42-$11.50 billion, implying 11%-12% year-over-year growth, and non-GAAP earnings of $3.42-$3.44 per share. The company expects cRPO growth of approximately 14% year over year and in constant currency. Since the earnings release, investors have witnessed a upward trend in estimates revision. Currently, Salesforce has a nice Growth Score of B, though it is lagging a bit on the Momentum Score front with a C. Charting a somewhat similar path, the stock has a grade of B on the value side, putting it in the second quintile for this investment strategy. Overall, the stock has an aggregate VGM Score of B. If you aren't focused on one strategy, this score is the one you should be interested in. Estimates have been broadly trending upward for the stock, and the magnitude of these revisions looks promising. Notably, Salesforce has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). We expect an in-line return from the stock in the next few months. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Salesforce, Inc. (CRM) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

Enterprise AI is quickly becoming one of technology's biggest battlegrounds. Businesses are no longer experimenting with artificial intelligence just to see what it can do. They are already convinced of its potential and are now looking at how to apply it across their operations. That shift is creating opportunities for software companies that can turn AI into something businesses actually use, rather than another expensive experiment. Two companies stand out for very different reasons: Palantir Technologies (PLTR) and Salesforce (CRM). Both are chasing the same enterprise AI opportunity, but their growth, valuations, and approaches to rewarding shareholders look very different. - Nvidia and AMD Get the Headlines. The Real AI Winners Might Be Applied Materials and Lam Research. - McDonald's Increased Its Dividend by Nearly 4%. How to Play MCD Stock Here. - An $8.5 Billion Catalyst Is Rocking McDonald's Stock - Tired of missing midday reversals? The FREE Barchart Brief newsletter keeps you in the know. Sign up now! For dividend investors, that adds another layer to the comparison, especially since AI growth and shareholder returns don't always go hand in hand. So which enterprise AI stock offers the better proposition today? Palantir Technologies is an enterprise software company known for its data analysis solutions and its use of artificial intelligence in real-world operations. Many industries use its software, including the U.S. government and defense agencies. The company is the larger of the two, with a market cap of $460 billion. Salesforce is another enterprise software company built around a customer relationship management platform. It helps businesses manage customer relationships and is leaning further into AI through Agentforce, which I'll cover later. Its market cap is $195 billion. The two companies compete in the same enterprise software market, but Palantir is already worth more than twice as much as Salesforce. But does its business justify that gap? Both companies are betting heavily on enterprise AI, but the drivers behind it are entirely different. Palantir's Artificial Intelligence Platform, or AIP, connects AI with a company's existing data and day-to-day operations. Think of it as an advanced chatbot that actually helps with your day-to-day operations. It lets businesses analyze information and make decisions, even automating much of their work. Meanwhile, Salesforce Agentforce is different. It lets companies build AI agents that can perform tasks across different parts of the business, including sales. It can also use company data and workflows to answer questions and take actions for both employees and customers. Think of it this way: Palantir wants AI deeply involved in how a company makes decisions and runs its operations, while Salesforce wants AI agents working alongside employees throughout the customer relationship. Palantir is building around data and operations, while Salesforce is building from its massive CRM ecosystem. The next question is how well those strategies are delivering in terms of numbers. I compared these companies' latest quarterly financials and other metrics using Barchart's Stock Comparison Tool. Now, you'll immediately notice something surprising. Despite Palantir's higher market cap and bigger market profile, Salesforce is beating it in absolute dollar terms. In the last quarter, Palantir reported $1.94 billion in revenue, a mere 17% of Salesforce's $11.3 billion. To be clear, though, the growth beneath those numbers is vastly different. Palantir's latest quarterly revenue grew 93%, while Salesforce's grew only 11%. That gap becomes even more evident at the bottom line. Palantir reported a $1.06 billion net income, translating to an impressive 54.9% profit margin. Again, Salesforce has the bigger number here at $3.5 billion, but at a lower 31.1% net margin. That's not a knock on the smaller company, but it does help explain why Palantir has the higher market cap. And it's probably also why Palantir is up 8% year-to-date, while Salesforce is down 10%. But here, we see a valuation difference. Salesforce is trading around 18x forward earnings, while Palantir is at an eye-watering 144x. That means Palantir trades at nearly eight times Salesforce's earnings multiple, even with a nearly 24-percentage-point margin lead. For context, the S&P 500 Information Technology sector has a current P/E ratio of 34x. So Salesforce looks much cheaper on earnings, while Palantir's premium reflects expectations for much faster growth. But for dividend investors, there's another part of this comparison that may matter even more. This is where the case for owning one of the two companies changes. While both compete for enterprise AI spending, they reward investors very differently. Palantir does not currently pay a dividend, and its recent financials gave no indication that one is coming anytime soon. For now, investors are relying entirely on share-price appreciation for their returns. Meanwhile, Salesforce pays a forward annual dividend of $1.76, which translates to a yield of approximately 0.74%. It might be small, but that cheaper valuation could be enough to convince a dividend investor to buy Salesforce. Now, let's see what Wall Street makes of the two. Wall Street sees plenty of potential in both. A consensus among 29 analysts rates PLTR stock a "Moderate Buy," with as much as 33% potential upside based on its high target price. Similarly, CRM has a consensus "Moderate Buy" rating based on 53 analysts. However, its potential upside based on its high target price is almost double. Right now, Salesforce looks like the much better deal. Despite trading at roughly half of Palantir's market cap, Salesforce has relatively decent revenue streams, profitability, a cheaper valuation, and offers something Palantir currently does not: a dividend. On the date of publication, Rick Orford did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. This article was originally published on Barchart.com