Salesforce shares jump on earnings beat and strong AI deals pipeline

Published

11 months ago

December 4, 2024

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Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, appears on a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 18, 2024.

Stefan Wermuth | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Shares of Salesforce popped more than 8% Wednesday, a day after the company reported third-quarter results that exceeded analysts’ estimates for revenue and guidance and showed strong promise for its artificial intelligence offerings.

Salesforce’s revenue grew 8% year over year to $9.44 billion in its third quarter, up from the $9.34 billion expected by LSEG. The company’s net income was $1.5 billion in the quarter, up 25% from $1.2 billion a year ago.

Salesforce raised revenue guidance to between $37.8 billion and $38 billion for its fiscal 2025, up slightly from $37.7 billion to $38 billion it had previously reported. The new range puts the midpoint for Salesforce’s fiscal 2025 revenue guidance at $37.9 billion, ahead of analysts’ expectations.

Analysts at Morgan Stanley reiterated their overweight rating on the stock, stating in a note that “the force is strong with this one.” The analysts said they are encouraged by Salesforce’s strong start with its artificial intelligence agent, Agentforce, as it closed more than 200 deals during the quarter with “thousands” more in the pipeline.

Salesforce’s Agentforce is an example of so-called AI agent technology. Several companies believe these advanced chatbots represent the next logical step from ChatGPT and other related tools powered by large language models.

Goldman Sachs analysts raised their Salesforce price target from $360 to $400 and reiterated their buy rating on the stock. The analysts said the company’s Data Cloud and Agentforce are driving “notable pipeline generation,” and they’re starting to contribute to the fundamentals of the business.

“We believe that Salesforce remains poised to be one of the most strategic application software companies in the $1tn+ TAM cloud industry and is on a path to $50bn in revenue,” the analysts said in a Tuesday note.

Similarly, analysts at Bank of America said Salesforce’s third-quarter results suggest it is “leading the way” with Agentforce, and they reiterated their buy rating on the stock. The analysts raised their price target to $440 from $390.

The analysts said the emerging AI agent product cycle is not derailing Salesforce’s margin expansion, and that a meaningful pipeline exists in the service and sales sectors.

“Commentary suggests no contribution for Agentforce is assumed in the guide, suggesting early Agentforce deal closure could provide a source of upside,” they wrote Wednesday.

–CNBC’s Michael Bloom and Jonathan Vanian contributed to this report

Technology

More demand than supply gives companies an edge, Jim Cramer says

Published

2 hours ago

October 24, 2025

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More demand than supply gives companies an edge, Jim Cramer says

“Supply constrained,” are the two of the most important words CNBC’s Jim Cramer said he’s heard so far during earnings season and explained why this dynamic is favorable for companies.

“When you’re supplied constrained, you have the ability to raise prices, and that’s the holy grail in any industry,” he said.

Intel‘s strong earnings results were in part because of more demand than supply, Cramer suggested. He noted that the company’s CFO, David Zinsner, said the semiconductor maker is supply constrained for a number of products, and that “industry supply has tightened materially.”

Along with Intel, other tech names that are also supply constrained and performing well on the market include Micron, AMD and Nvidia, Cramer continued.

These companies don’t have enough product in part because the storage needs of artificial intelligence are incredible high, Cramer said. He added that he thinks demand has overwhelmed supply because semiconductor capital equipment companies didn’t manufacture enough of their own machines as they simply didn’t anticipate such a volume of orders.

Outside of tech, Cramer said he thinks airplane maker Boeing and energy company GE Vernova are also supply constrained, adding that he thinks the former will say it’s short on most of its planes when it reports earnings next week. GE Vernova is supply constrained with its power equipment, like turbines that burn natural gas, he continued, which is the primary energy source for the ever-growing crop of data centers.

GE Vernova and Boeing are also set to be winners because they make big-ticket items that other countries can buy from the U.S. to help close the trade deficit, Cramer added.

“In the end, we have more demand than supply in a host of industries and that’s the ticket for good stock performance,” he said. “I don’t see that changing any time soon.”

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Technology

3 takeaways from Intel earnings: Cash flow, foundry progress and hardware surprise

Published

7 hours ago

October 24, 2025

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3 takeaways from Intel earnings: Cash flow, foundry progress and hardware surprise

Wall Street remains skeptical on Intel despite its return to profitability

Intel snapped a losing streak of six straight quarterly losses and returned to profitability in the third quarter.

In its first earnings report since the Trump administration acquired a 10% stake in the company, the U.S. chipmaker posted strong revenue, noting robust demand for chips that it expects to continue into 2026.

Client computing revenue, which includes chips for PCs and laptops, grew 5% year over year, benefiting from PC market stabilization and artificial intelligence PC prospects.

CEO Lip-Bu Tan said in a call with analysts Thursday that artificial intelligence “is a strong foundation for sustainable long-term growth as we execute.”

The chip strength and demand were bright spots, but there were areas of concern as well, with the company’s foundry business still needing a big break.

Here are three takeaways from the chipmaker’s Q3 report:

Cash flow

“We significantly improved our cash position and liquidity in Q3, a key focus for me since becoming CEO in March,” Tan said on a call with analysts Thursday.

Intel landed an $8.9 billion investment from the U.S. government in August, along with $2 billion from Softbank, but has not yet received the $5 billion tied to a deal with Nvidia. The company expects that deal to close by the end of Q4.

With all of those transactions completed, plus the Altera sale, Intel will have $35 billion in cash on hand, CFO David Zinser told CNBC.

The U.S. government is the company’s biggest shareholder, and Intel stock is up more than 50% since Aug. 22, when Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick announced the deal.

“Like any shareholder, we have to keep in touch with them,” Zinser said of the U.S. stake. “We don’t tell them how the numbers are going before the quarter. We generally talk to them like Fidelity,” another Intel shareholder.

Stock Chart IconStock chart icon

Intel 3-month stock chart.

Foundry

The firm’s foundry remains a work in progress.

Revenue fell 2% over the year before, and it has yet to land a major customer.

Intel now has two fabs running 18A nodes, which are designed for AI and high-performance computing applications.

“We are making steady progress on Intel 18A,” Tan said of its latest chip technology. “We are on track to bring Panther Lake to market this year.”

Zinser said the more advanced 14A nodes won’t be put in supply until the company has “real firm demand.”

Old stuff still selling

Zinser said the company’s older chipmaking processes, or nodes, have continued to do well, “and that was probably the part that was more unexpected.”

Zinser said the chipmaker met some of the central processing unit (CPU) demand with inventory on hand, but they will be behind in Q1, “probably Q2 and maybe in Q3.”

The supply crunch has been with older Intel 10 and 7 manufacturing technologies.

Many customers are opting for less advanced hardware to refresh their operating systems, demonstrating enterprises aren’t waiting for cutting-edge chips when proven technology gets the job done.