Salesforce delivered another quarter of record results. Revenue reached $11.1 billion in the first quarter of fiscal 2027. That figure climbed 13 percent from a year earlier. The company topped expectations on the top and bottom lines. Yet shares slipped in after-hours trading. Investors weighed the raised guidance against questions about long-term artificial-intelligence momentum and cash-flow adjustments.
The numbers tell a story of steady progress. Subscription and support revenue hit $10.6 billion, up 14 percent. Current remaining performance obligation grew 14 percent to $33.6 billion. Total remaining performance obligation stood at $67.9 billion. Non-GAAP operating margin expanded to 34.8 percent. GAAP earnings per share rose 52 percent to $2.42 while non-GAAP earnings per share increased 50 percent to $3.88. Free cash flow advanced 4 percent to $6.6 billion.
But one metric stood out. Agentforce annual recurring revenue crossed $1.2 billion. That represents 205 percent growth from the prior year. Combined AI and data ARR reached nearly $3.4 billion, more than doubling. The company has delivered 3.8 billion Agentic Work Units. It processed 28.6 trillion tokens, up 152 percent sequentially. These figures point to real adoption. More than 50 percent of recent Agentforce and Data 360 bookings came from existing customers.
“This was an outstanding quarter for Salesforce — record revenue, record deals, and cash flow,” said Marc Benioff, chair and chief executive officer. “Agentic AI is the biggest growth opportunity for our customers, and for Salesforce. We’re the #1 Agentic CRM, with Agentforce now powering every Customer 360 application and helping tens of thousands of businesses across every industry transform into Agentic Enterprises.”
The performance builds on earlier success. Salesforce closed its Informatica acquisition in the prior year. That deal contributed $444 million to first-quarter revenue and $428 million to subscription revenue. Management now expects Informatica to add roughly three percentage points to full-year growth. Integration appears on track.
Investors received fresh capital-return news too. Salesforce returned $27.5 billion to shareholders during the quarter. That included $27.1 billion in repurchases and $365 million in dividends. The company entered a $25 billion accelerated share repurchase agreement. It received an upfront delivery of 103 million shares. Final settlement is expected in the third quarter. The move signals confidence that shares remain undervalued even after recent declines.
Guidance improved. Salesforce now projects full-year revenue between $45.9 billion and $46.2 billion. The prior range sat lower. The midpoint increase of $200 million reflects stronger visibility into the second half. Second-quarter revenue is expected between $11.27 billion and $11.35 billion. Non-GAAP earnings per share guidance rose to between $14.06 and $14.12 for the year. Operating margins hold steady. Cash-flow growth, however, was trimmed to 4 percent to 5 percent to account for debt issued to fund the buyback.
“We remain confident in delivering organic revenue acceleration in the second half of FY27, driven by growth in Sales, Service, Slack, Agentforce, and Data 360,” said Robin Washington, president and chief financial and operating officer. The framework emphasizes profitable growth. Long-term targets through fiscal 2030 remain intact.
These results arrive at a delicate moment for enterprise software. Many wonder whether AI will cannibalize traditional SaaS spending. Salesforce counters that its agents extend human work rather than replace it. Bookings from premium Agentforce SKUs in Sales and Service grew nearly 60 percent. Data 360 ingested 52 trillion records. Slack’s Model Context Protocol surpassed 1 million active users within weeks of launch. Public-sector industry cloud ARR exceeded $2 billion.
Analysts have taken notice. Recent coverage highlights the balance between AI excitement and execution risks. Yahoo Finance reported the guidance increase alongside the Agentforce ARR milestone and noted the post-market share decline. Seeking Alpha captured Benioff’s earnings-call emphasis on record deals and cash flow while flagging the $25 billion buyback as a direct response to perceived undervaluation.
The company continues to refine its agent platform. Earlier updates added deterministic controls and scripting layers to improve reliability in production environments. Customers gain greater governance over AI behavior. That shift addresses concerns about unpredictability in large language models. Salesforce positions the combination of data, apps, and agents as unmatched. Zero-copy integration and unstructured-data processing give it an edge in complex enterprise settings.
Still, challenges persist. Cash-flow guidance came down because of the debt-financed repurchase. Some observers question whether AI-driven efficiency gains will pressure overall industry growth rates. Salesforce stock has lagged the broader market this year. The accelerated buyback may help stabilize sentiment. Management insists the pipeline supports acceleration in the back half of the year.
Enterprise buyers appear to respond. Tens of thousands of organizations now use Agentforce across industries. The public sector shows particular strength. Military and government deployments highlight the platform’s auditability and security features. Every AI action leaves a traceable record. That matters when compliance and accountability cannot be compromised.
Salesforce has spent years building trust in its data foundation. That foundation now powers autonomous agents that act across sales, service, marketing, and operations. The bet is that companies will pay for measurable productivity gains. Early metrics — work units processed, tokens consumed, records ingested — suggest usage is scaling rapidly. Whether that converts into sustained double-digit revenue growth will determine if the stock regains its premium valuation.
The coming quarters will test that thesis. Guidance implies roughly 11 percent growth for the year. That pace exceeds many legacy software peers. Informatica helps. Organic acceleration must follow. Benioff and Washington sounded measured. They pointed to existing-customer expansion and premium SKU uptake as proof points. The market will watch whether those trends compound or plateau.
For now the numbers support optimism. Revenue beat. Earnings beat. Guidance rose. Capital returned at scale. AI adoption metrics surged. Salesforce has answered near-term questions with concrete results. Longer-term questions about the agent economy remain open. The company believes it sits at the center of that shift. Investors will decide if the valuation reflects that belief.
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