Salesforce
Salesforce's revenue rose 9.6% to $41.5 billion in fiscal 2026. Its operating margin was 20.1%, up from 19.0% a year earlier. Free cash flow was $14.4 billion, up 15.8%. It paid out $14.2 billion in dividends and buybacks, 98% of free cash flow. The diluted share count fell 1.9%.
Operating margin is operating income as a share of revenue. Free cash flow is cash from operations minus capital spending. Return on capital is after-tax operating income as a share of the money invested in the business: debt plus equity, minus cash. Market cap is the last closing share price times the latest diluted share count, so it is approximate. P/E is the last close divided by diluted earnings per share over the last four quarters, or the latest fiscal year where the quarters aren't available; there is none when the company made a loss.
What Salesforce does
Salesforce sells business software that runs over the internet. Its programs help companies keep track of their customers and handle sales, customer service, marketing and online stores. It also sells the Slack workplace chat app, Tableau for charts and analysis, MuleSoft for connecting different computer systems, and tools for building apps on its platform. Its newest product, Agentforce, lets customers set up AI agents, software that can answer questions and carry out tasks on its own. It sells to businesses of all sizes in almost every industry, mostly through its own sales staff and also through partners.
Revenue was $41.5 billion in the fiscal year that ended in January 2026. Subscriptions and support, the fees customers pay to use the software, made up about 95 percent of it, and professional services the rest. No single customer made up more than ten percent of revenue. Salesforce competes with other business software makers, AI startups, makers of email and office tools, and companies that give their software away free or charge only for extra features.
In November 2025 Salesforce bought Informatica, which helps companies organize and manage their data, for about $9.6 billion. At the end of January 2026 it had 83,334 employees.
Its biggest risks, as it describes them
- Outages or flaws in its online services, or in the outside data centers and cloud providers it relies on.
- Fierce competition, including from new AI companies, in markets where products change fast.
- Acquisitions such as Informatica may prove hard to fold in or fail to bring the expected benefits.
- Ethical, legal and reputational risks from building AI into its products.
- Privacy laws and new rules on cloud computing, AI and moving data across borders that could limit use of its services.
Charts show fiscal years, from the 10-K filings.
Revenue and margins
Net income and earnings per share
From fiscal 2017 to 2026, earnings per share grew 37.0% a year and net income 41.7% a year, as new shares raised the share count by 37% and diluted each share's earnings.
Returns on capital
Cash flow
Payouts and share count
Valuation
Two ways to value Salesforce yourself, both starting from its filings: a discounted cash flow model and the price-to-earnings method.
What Salesforce says to expect
- Third quarter fiscal 2027: revenue
Initiates third quarter FY27 revenue guidance of $11.42 billion to $11.5 billion, up 11% - 12% Y/Y and in CC, including slightly above 4pts Informatica contribution
- Full year fiscal 2027: revenue
Salesforce raises full year FY27 revenue guidance to $46.1 billion to $46.4 billion, up 11% - 12% Y/Y and 11% Y/Y in CC.
Discounted cash flow (DCF)
A discounted cash flow (DCF) model values a business as the cash it may generate in future, discounted back to today. The starting figures come from Salesforce's 10-K (or, for net cash and shares, its latest 10-Q) and the assumptions are yours: start from one of three example scenarios, then change any figure to see what it implies for a share, and how that compares with the last share price.
Value per share on three example scenarios, from Salesforce's fiscal 2026 free cash flow of $14.4B, net cash of −$5.4B at January 31, 2026 and 956 million diluted shares, from its filings. The scenarios are fitted to Salesforce: the base scenario's growth in years 1 to 5 is its revenue growth over the last 3 years, 9.8% a year; the cautious and optimistic ones are lower and higher, and growth in years 6 to 10 is halfway to the long-run rate. The base scenario's discount rate is 9% for a business of moderate risk (Application Software); the cautious and optimistic ones use a point more and a point less. Select one to load it into the calculator. These are the model's arithmetic on those assumptions, not a forecast or a price target.
- Last close, October 26, 2026
- $247.61
- Value on these assumptions, against the last close
- —
- Cash flows in years 1 to 10, valued today
- —
- Everything after year 10, valued today
- —
- Plus net cash
- —
- Share of value from after year 10
How the value changes with two assumptions
Price-to-earnings (P/E) method
Another common way to value a company is to multiply its earnings per share by a price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple: the number of years of today's earnings an investor pays for a share. A higher multiple usually means investors expect earnings to grow. Choose a multiple, for example from similar companies, to see the value it gives.
Value per share on three example scenarios, from Salesforce's earnings per share of $10.97 (over the last four quarters). Each grows earnings for a year at the cash flow scenarios' rates and applies a multiple to next year's earnings: 22.6×, the middle of Salesforce's own P/E today, its peers' median and its sector's median (Salesforce's own P/E today) for the base scenario, 20% less and more for the cautious and optimistic ones. The price is brought back a year at 10%, 9% and 8%. Select one to load it into the calculator. These are the model's arithmetic on those assumptions, not a forecast or a price target.
- Last close, October 26, 2026
- $247.61
- Value at this multiple, against the last close
- —
- Salesforce's P/E at the last close
- 22.6×
| Company | Last close | Earnings per share | P/E today |
|---|---|---|---|
| SalesforceCRM | $247.61 | $10.97 | 22.6× |
| IntuitINTU | $339.89 | $16.46 | 20.6× |
| OracleORCL | $126.06 | $6.38 | 19.8× |
| AdobeADBE | $258.62 | $17.91 | 14.4× |
Balance sheet
| Fiscal year end | FY22 | FY23 | FY24 | FY25 | FY26 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cash and short-term investments | 10.5 | 12.5 | 14.2 | 14.0 | 9.6 |
| Debt incl. finance leases | 11.0 | 11.4 | 10.4 | 9.1 | 15.0 |
| Net debt (negative means net cash) | 0.4 | −1.1 | −3.8 | −4.9 | 5.4 |
| Net debt to EBITDA | 0.4x | −0.6x | −0.6x | −0.6x | 0.6x |
| Debt to equity | 0.2x | 0.2x | 0.2x | 0.1x | 0.2x |
| Interest coverage | 2.5x | 3.4x | 17.7x | 26.5x | 25.7x |
| Current ratio | 1.1x | 1.0x | 1.1x | 1.1x | 0.8x |
| Quick ratio | 1.1x | 1.0x | 1.1x | 1.1x | 0.8x |
Insider trades
Over the 12 months between October 27, 2025 and October 26, 2026, 3 insiders bought $27.5 million of Salesforce shares on the open market, and 4 insiders sold $36.6 million, $34.5 million of it under trading plans set up in advance.
| Date | Insider | Trade | Shares | Price | Value | Filing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 18, 2026 | David Blair KirkDirector | Bought | 4,176 | $239.33 | $999,442 | Form 4 |
| Sep 4, 2026 | Craig ConwayDirector | Sold | 4,500 | $260.61 | $1.2 million | Form 4 |
| Mar 19, 2026 | Laura AlberDirector | Bought | 2,571 | $194.58 | $500,266 | Form 4 |
| Mar 18, 2026 | David Blair KirkDirector | Bought | 2,570 | $194.62 | $500,173 | Form 4 |
| Jan 14, 2026 | Neelie KroesDirector | Sold | 3,893 | $238.70 | $929,259 | Form 4 |
| Dec 17, 2025 | David Blair KirkDirector | Bought | 1,936 | $258.64 | $500,727 | Form 4 |
| Dec 5, 2025 | ValueAct Holdings II L.P.Director | Bought | 96,000 | $260.58 | $25.0 million | Form 4 |
| Dec 2, 2025 | Parker HarrisCo-Founder and CTO, Slack, Director | Sold plan | 134,662 | $234.70 | $31.6 million | Form 4 |
| Nov 3, 2025 | Marc BenioffChair and CEO, Director | Sold plan | 122 | $259.00 | $31,599 | Form 4 |
| Oct 31, 2025 | Marc BenioffChair and CEO, Director | Sold plan | 2,250 | $258.19 | $580,936 | Form 4 |
| Oct 30, 2025 | Marc BenioffChair and CEO, Director | Sold plan | 2,250 | $256.82 | $577,847 | Form 4 |
| Oct 29, 2025 | Marc BenioffChair and CEO, Director | Sold plan | 2,250 | $252.03 | $567,076 | Form 4 |
Piotroski F-score
The F-score counts how many of nine simple tests of profitability, funding and efficiency a company passed in a year (Piotroski, 2000). The more tests passed, the stronger the year: 8 or 9 is strong, 0 to 2 weak. Companies that report no gross profit are scored on the other eight.
| Test | FY24 | FY25 | FY26 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Net income is positive | Pass | Pass | Pass |
| Cash from operations is positive | Pass | Pass | Pass |
| Return on assets rose | Pass | Pass | Pass |
| Cash from operations exceeds net income | Pass | Pass | Pass |
| Debt fell relative to assets | Pass | Pass | Fail |
| Current ratio rose | Pass | Fail | Fail |
| Share count didn't rise | Pass | Pass | Pass |
| Gross margin rose | Pass | Pass | Pass |
| Revenue rose relative to assets | Pass | Pass | Pass |
| F-score | 9 of 9 | 8 of 9 | 7 of 9 |
| Accruals ratio | −6.1% | −6.8% | −7.0% |
Compare
Put Salesforce side by side with any other company we cover: revenue, growth, margins, cash flow and returns, with ten years of charts.
Similar companies
| Company | Year | Revenue growth | Operating margin | Free cash flow margin | Return on capital | Net debt to EBITDA | F-score | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Salesforce | FY26 | 9.6% | 20.1% | 34.7% | 10.8% | 0.6x | 7 | |
| SAP SE | FY25 | 7.7% | 26.1% | 22.9% | 15.5% | −0.2x | 7 | Compare |
| Oracle | FY26 | 17.4% | 30.6% | −35.2% | 14.2% | 3.5x | 5 | Compare |
| Adobe | FY25 | 10.5% | 36.6% | 41.5% | 65.8% | −0.0x | 7 | Compare |
| Intuit | FY26 | 13.9% | 27.4% | 40.4% | 22.0% | 0.1x | 6 | Compare |
10 years of figures
| Fiscal year | FY17 | FY18 | FY19 | FY20 | FY21 | FY22 | FY23 | FY24 | FY25 | FY26 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Income statement | ||||||||||
| Revenue | 8.4 | 10.5 | 13.3 | 17.1 | 21.3 | 26.5 | 31.4 | 34.9 | 37.9 | 41.5 |
| Revenue growth | 25.9% | 25.6% | 26.0% | 28.7% | 24.3% | 24.7% | 18.4% | 11.2% | 8.7% | 9.6% |
| Gross profit | 6.2 | 7.8 | 9.8 | 12.9 | 15.8 | 19.5 | 23.0 | 26.3 | 29.3 | 32.3 |
| Research and development | 1.2 | 1.6 | 1.9 | 2.8 | 3.6 | 4.5 | 5.1 | 4.9 | 5.5 | 6.0 |
| Operating income | 0.2 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 1.0 | 5.0 | 7.2 | 8.3 |
| Net income | 0.3 | 0.4 | 1.1 | 0.1 | 4.1 | 1.4 | 0.2 | 4.1 | 6.2 | 7.5 |
| Diluted EPS (US$) | 0.46 | 0.49 | 1.43 | 0.15 | 4.38 | 1.48 | 0.21 | 4.20 | 6.36 | 7.80 |
| Diluted shares (millions) | 700 | 735 | 775 | 850 | 930 | 974 | 997 | 984 | 974 | 956 |
| Cash flow | ||||||||||
| Cash from operations | 2.2 | 2.7 | 3.4 | 4.3 | 4.8 | 6.0 | 7.1 | 10.2 | 13.1 | 15.0 |
| Capital expenditure | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.8 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.6 |
| Free cash flow | 1.7 | 2.2 | 2.8 | 3.7 | 4.1 | 5.3 | 6.3 | 9.5 | 12.4 | 14.4 |
| Dividends paid | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.5 | 1.6 |
| Share buybacks | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 4.0 | 7.6 | 7.8 | 12.6 |
| Acquisitions | 3.2 | 0.0 | 5.1 | 0.4 | 1.3 | 14.9 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 2.7 | 9.3 |
| Stock-based compensation | 0.8 | 1.0 | 1.3 | 1.8 | 2.2 | 2.8 | 3.3 | 2.8 | 3.2 | 3.5 |
| Balance sheet at fiscal year end | ||||||||||
| Cash and short-term investments | 2.2 | 4.5 | 4.3 | 7.9 | 12.0 | 10.5 | 12.5 | 14.2 | 14.0 | 9.6 |
| Debt incl. finance leases | 2.0 | 1.7 | 3.2 | 3.1 | 2.8 | 11.0 | 11.4 | 10.4 | 9.1 | 15.0 |
| Total assets | 17.6 | 22.0 | 30.7 | 55.1 | 66.3 | 95.2 | 98.8 | 99.8 | 102.9 | 112.3 |
| Total liabilities | 10.1 | 11.6 | 15.1 | 21.2 | 24.8 | 37.1 | 40.5 | 40.2 | 41.8 | 53.2 |
| Shareholders' equity | 8.2 | 10.4 | 15.6 | 33.9 | 41.5 | 58.1 | 58.4 | 59.6 | 61.2 | 59.1 |
| Margins and ratios | ||||||||||
| Gross margin | 73.9% | 73.7% | 74.0% | 75.2% | 74.4% | 73.5% | 73.3% | 75.5% | 77.2% | 77.7% |
| Operating margin | 2.6% | 4.3% | 4.0% | 1.7% | 2.1% | 2.1% | 3.3% | 14.4% | 19.0% | 20.1% |
| Net margin | 3.9% | 3.4% | 8.4% | 0.7% | 19.2% | 5.5% | 0.7% | 11.9% | 16.4% | 18.0% |
| Free cash flow margin | 20.2% | 20.9% | 21.1% | 21.6% | 19.2% | 19.9% | 20.1% | 27.2% | 32.8% | 34.7% |
| Return on capital | 3.8% | 5.0% | 4.8% | 0.7% | 1.5% | 1.1% | 0.9% | 7.4% | 10.7% | 10.8% |
| Return on equity | 4.9% | 3.9% | 8.5% | 0.5% | 10.8% | 2.9% | 0.4% | 7.0% | 10.3% | 12.4% |
| Return on assets | 2.1% | 1.8% | 4.2% | 0.3% | 6.7% | 1.8% | 0.2% | 4.2% | 6.1% | 6.9% |
| Net debt to EBITDA | −0.2x | −3.4x | −1.2x | −6.5x | −8.9x | 0.4x | −0.6x | −0.6x | −0.6x | 0.6x |