(News Bulletin 247) – The customer relations software specialist delivered results significantly better than expectations in the third quarter. The title jumps in pre-opening.

Salesforce is well on its way to being the hit of the day on Wall Street. The specialist in customer relationship management (CRM) software jumped 12.8% in pre-opening trading this Wednesday, after revealing its results for the third quarter of its 2024-2025 financial year.

Over this period, which extended from August 1 to October 31, the company generated revenues of $9.44 billion, up 8% year-on-year excluding currency effects, while its earnings per share rose 14% to $2.41. The operating margin also stood at 33.1%, up 1.9 percentage points year-on-year.

According to an LSEG consensus cited by CNBC, analysts expected revenues of $9.34 billion.

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An indicator closely monitored by the market remains the CRPO, or the “current remaining performance obligation”, which corresponds to the income derived from contracts to be executed over the next 12 months. This indicator stood at $26.4 billion, up 10% year-on-year.

According to Dan Ives of Wedbush, the company beat the consensus, which was housed at $26.1 billion with 9% growth.

Regarding its prospects, Salesforce indicated that it expects growth of between 7% and 9% for the fourth quarter and 8% to 9% for its entire 2024-2025 financial year.

Agentforce as an asset

Salesforce appears to be benefiting from its artificial intelligence initiatives. As Bloomberg explains, the company has focused on the development of tools called “agents”, chatbots which must carry out simple customer assistance and sales development tasks, without human help. In October, the group launched a product in this area, called “Agentforce”, with a price of $2 per conversation with an agent.

Salesforce Vice President Mike Spencer told Bloomberg that the company has since signed “a fair number” of Agentforce-related deals.

During the conference call with analysts, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff touted Agentforce’s prowess. “This is a bold leap into the future of work, where AI agents enable humans to come together to transform all of our customer interactions,” he said, as quoted by CNBC .

The executive also said he ruptured his Achilles tendon during a recent birthday scuba diving trip to an atoll in French Polynesia. He said he was disappointed that the hospital that treated him was unable to schedule his follow-up appointments using artificial intelligence agents, CNBC reports.

“That’s the message we’re sending to our clients: how are you going to give some of your employees a break, allow them to get back to their strategic work, let them focus on what really matters,” he said. chained.

SAP benefits

For Dan Ives, Agentforce will become “a monstrous catalyst for growth” for Salesforce.

“We believe that the AI ​​revolution (on the stock market, Editor’s note) is entering the phase where it will win over software companies in 2025 and that Salesforce and Benioff have now been allowed to (…) enter the dance floor for the AI revolution party which will take place at 10 p.m. and continue until 4 a.m.,” he continues.

In the wake of Salesforce’s results, the German SAP, also a specialist in professional software, gained 2.3% on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Stifel believes that the American group’s publication is likely to support SAP’s action through cross-reading.

Dassault Systèmes, which specializes in product life cycle management software, takes 2.6% on the Paris Stock Exchange. “Normally there is no cross-reading on Dassault because the group’s products and customer base are different from those of Salesforce,” judges an analyst. “However, the good publication of Salesforce can reassure the demand for tech as a whole,” he adds.