Salesforce Announces Strong First Quarter Fiscal 2024 Results

Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), the global leader in CRM, today announced results for its first quarter fiscal 2024 ended April 30, 2023.

• First Quarter Revenue of $8.25 Billion, up 11% Year-Over-Year ("Y/Y"), up 13% Constant Currency ("CC")
• First Quarter GAAP Operating Margin of 5.0% and Non-GAAP Operating Margin of 27.6%
• Current Remaining Performance Obligation of $24.1 Billion, up 12% Y/Y, 12% CC
• First Quarter GAAP Diluted Earnings per Share ("EPS") of $0.20 and Non-GAAP Diluted EPS of $1.69
• Returned $2.1 Billion in First Quarter to Stockholders in the Form of Share Repurchases
• Initiates Second Quarter FY24 Revenue Guidance of $8.51 Billion to $8.53 Billion, up ~10% Y/Y
• Reiterates Full Year FY24 Revenue Guidance of $34.5 Billion to $34.7 Billion, up ~10% Y/Y
• Raises Full Year FY24 GAAP Operating Margin Guidance to ~11.4% and Non-GAAP Operating Margin Guidance to ~28.0%

“Salesforce significantly exceeded our non-GAAP margin target for the quarter — up 1,000 basis points year-over-year, and we are raising our FY24 non-GAAP operating margin guidance to a 550 basis point increase year-over-year,” said Marc Benioff, Chair and CEO of Salesforce. “At the same time, we are leading the next major revolution in CRM — infusing trusted, secure generative AI across our entire product portfolio. Salesforce's generative AI ecosystem wields Einstein GPT, Slack GPT, and Tableau GPT, delivering trusted power across our product portfolio. Our Salesforce GPT Trust Layer will shield customer data, enabling productive automation and intelligent enterprise enhancements securely.”

"Q1 represented another strong step forward as we accelerate our transformation and profitable growth strategy,” said Amy Weaver, President and CFO of Salesforce. “Our team delivered another double-digit growth quarter on the top and bottom line as we help customers increase productivity, drive efficiency, and become AI-first companies."

Salesforce delivered the following results for its fiscal first quarter:

Revenue: Total first quarter revenue was $8.25 billion, an increase of 11% Y/Y, and 13% CC. Subscription and support revenues were $7.64 billion, an increase of 11% Y/Y. Professional services and other revenues were $0.61 billion, an increase of 9% Y/Y.

Operating Margin: First quarter GAAP operating margin was 5.0%. First quarter non-GAAP operating margin was 27.6%. Restructuring impacted first quarter GAAP operating margin by (860) bps.

Earnings per Share: First quarter GAAP diluted earnings per share was $0.20, and non-GAAP diluted EPS was $1.69. Losses on the Company’s strategic investments negatively impacted GAAP diluted earnings per share by $(0.11) based on a U.S. tax rate of 25% and non-GAAP diluted EPS by $(0.11) based on a non-GAAP tax rate of 23.5%. Restructuring impacted first quarter GAAP diluted earnings per share by (72) cents.

Cash Flow: Cash generated from operations for the first quarter was $4.49 billion, an increase of 22% Y/Y. Free cash flow was $4.25 billion, an increase of 21% Y/Y. Restructuring impacted first quarter operating cash flow growth by (910) bps.

Remaining Performance Obligation: Remaining performance obligation ended the first quarter at $46.7 billion, an increase of 11% Y/Y. Current remaining performance obligation ended at $24.1 billion, an increase of 12% Y/Y, and 12% CC.

Forward Looking Guidance

As of May 31, 2023, the Company is initiating its second quarter GAAP and non-GAAP EPS guidance, current remaining performance obligation growth guidance, and revenue guidance. The Company is reiterating its full year FY24 revenue guidance and updating its GAAP and non-GAAP EPS guidance, GAAP and non-GAAP operating margin guidance, and operating cash flow guidance.

Our guidance assumes no change to the value of the Company's strategic investment portfolio as it is not possible to forecast future gains and losses. In addition, the guidance below is based on estimated GAAP tax rates that reflect the Company’s currently available information, and excludes forecasted discrete tax items such as the tax effects of stock-based compensation. The GAAP tax rates may fluctuate due to discrete tax items and related effects in conjunction with certain provisions in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, future acquisitions or other transactions.

The following is a reconciliation of GAAP operating margin guidance to non-GAAP operating margin guidance for the full year:

The following is a per share reconciliation of GAAP diluted earnings per share to non-GAAP diluted earnings per share guidance for the next quarter and the full year:

For additional information regarding non-GAAP financial measures see the reconciliation of results and related explanations below.

Management will provide further commentary around these guidance assumptions on its earnings call.

Product Releases and Enhancements

Three times a year Salesforce delivers new product releases, services, or enhancements to current products and services. These releases are a result of significant research and development investments made over multiple years, designed to help customers drive cost savings, boost efficiency, and build trust.

To view our major product releases and other highlights as part of the Spring'23 Product Release, visit: www.salesforce.com/products/innovation/spring-23-release/

Quarterly Conference Call

Salesforce plans to host a conference call at 2:00 p.m. (PT) / 5:00 p.m. (ET) to discuss its financial results with the investment community. A live webcast and replay details of the event will be available on the Salesforce Investor Relations website at www.salesforce.com/investor.

About Salesforce

Salesforce empowers companies of every size and industry to connect with their customers in a whole new way through the power of AI + data + CRM. For more information about Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), visit: www.salesforce.com.

"Safe harbor" statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: This press release contains forward-looking statements about the Company's financial and operating results and guidance, which include, but are not limited to, expected GAAP and non-GAAP financial and other operating and non-operating results, including revenue, net income, earnings per share, operating cash flow growth, operating margin, expected revenue growth, expected foreign currency exchange rate impact, expected current remaining performance obligation growth, expected tax rates or provisions, stock-based compensation expenses, amortization of purchased intangibles, shares outstanding, market growth, strategic investments, and expected restructuring expense or charges, and the expected timing of product releases and enhancements. The achievement or success of the matters covered by such forward-looking statements involves risks, uncertainties and assumptions. If any such risks or uncertainties materialize or if any of the assumptions prove incorrect, the Company’s results or outcomes could differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements it makes.

The risks and uncertainties referred to above include -- but are not limited to -- risks associated with the impact of, and actions we may take in response to, the COVID-19 pandemic, related public health measures and resulting economic downturn and market volatility; our ability to maintain security levels and service performance that meet the expectations of our customers, and the resources and costs required to avoid unanticipated downtime and prevent, detect and remediate performance degradation and security breaches; the expenses associated with our data centers and third-party infrastructure providers; our ability to secure additional data center capacity; our reliance on third-party hardware, software and platform providers; the effect of evolving domestic and foreign government regulations, including those related to the provision of services on the Internet, those related to accessing the Internet, and those addressing data privacy, cross-border data transfers and import and export controls; current and potential litigation involving us or our industry, including litigation involving acquired entities such as Slack Technologies, Inc., and the resolution or settlement thereof; regulatory developments and regulatory investigations involving us or affecting our industry; our ability to successfully introduce new services and product features, including any efforts to expand our services; the success of our strategy of acquiring or making investments in complementary businesses, joint ventures, services, technologies and intellectual property rights; our ability to complete, on a timely basis or at all, announced transactions; our ability to realize the benefits from acquisitions, strategic partnerships, joint ventures and investments, and successfully integrate acquired businesses and technologies; our ability to compete in the markets in which we participate; the success of our business strategy and our plan to build our business, including our strategy to be a leading provider of enterprise cloud computing applications and platforms; our ability to execute our business plans; our ability to continue to grow unearned revenue and remaining performance obligation; the pace of change and innovation in enterprise cloud computing services; the seasonal nature of our sales cycles; our ability to limit customer attrition and costs related to those efforts; the success of our international expansion strategy; the demands on our personnel and infrastructure resulting from significant growth in our customer base and operations, including as a result of acquisitions; our ability to preserve our workplace culture, including as a result of our decisions regarding our current and future office environments or work-from-home policies; our dependency on the development and maintenance of the infrastructure of the Internet; our real estate and office facilities strategy and related costs and uncertainties; fluctuations in, and our ability to predict, our operating results and cash flows; the variability in our results arising from the accounting for term license revenue products; the performance and fair value of our investments in complementary businesses through our strategic investment portfolio; the impact of future gains or losses from our strategic investment portfolio, including gains or losses from overall market conditions that may affect the publicly traded companies within our strategic investment portfolio; our ability to protect our intellectual property rights; our ability to maintain and enhance our brands; the impact of foreign currency exchange rate and interest rate fluctuations on our results; the valuation of our deferred tax assets and the release of related valuation allowances; the potential availability of additional tax assets in the future; the impact of new accounting pronouncements and tax laws; uncertainties affecting our ability to estimate our tax rate; uncertainties regarding our tax obligations in connection with potential jurisdictional transfers of intellectual property, including the tax rate, the timing of transfers and the value of such transferred intellectual property; uncertainties regarding the effect of general economic, business and market conditions, including inflationary pressures, general economic downturn or recession, market volatility, increasing interest rates and changes in monetary policy; the potential impact of financial institution instability; the impact of geopolitical events, including the recent conflict in Europe; uncertainties regarding the impact of expensing stock options and other equity awards; the sufficiency of our capital resources; our ability to execute our share repurchase program; our ability to comply with our debt covenants and lease obligations; the impact of climate change, natural disasters and actual or threatened public health emergencies the expected benefits of and timing of completion of the restructuring plan and the expected costs and charges of the restructuring plan, including, among other things, the risk that the restructuring costs and charges may be greater than we anticipate, the risk that our restructuring efforts may adversely affect our internal programs and our ability to recruit and retain skilled and motivated personnel, and may be distracting to employees and management, the risk that our restructuring efforts may negatively impact our business operations and reputation with or ability to serve customers, and the risk that our restructuring efforts may not generate their intended benefits to the extent or as quickly as anticipated; and our ability to achieve our aspirations, goals and projections related to our environmental, social and governance initiatives.

Further information on these and other factors that could affect the Company’s actual results or outcomes is included in the reports on Forms 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K and in other filings it makes with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time. These documents are available on the SEC Filings section of the Financials section of the Company’s website at http://investor.salesforce.com/financials/.

Salesforce, Inc. assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements, except as required by law.

© 2023 Salesforce, Inc. All rights reserved. Salesforce and other marks are trademarks of Salesforce, Inc. Other brands featured herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Supplemental Revenue Analysis

Remaining Performance Obligation

Remaining performance obligation ("RPO") represents contracted revenue that has not yet been recognized, which includes unearned revenue and unbilled amounts that will be recognized as revenue in future periods. RPO is influenced by several factors, including seasonality, the timing of renewals, the timing of software license deliveries, average contract terms and foreign currency exchange rates. Remaining performance obligation is also impacted by acquisitions. Unbilled portions of RPO denominated in foreign currencies are revalued each period based on the period end exchange rates. The portion of RPO that is unbilled is not recorded on the consolidated balance sheets.

RPO consisted of the following (in billions):

Unearned Revenue

Unearned revenue represents amounts that have been invoiced in advance of revenue recognition and is recognized as revenue when transfer of control to customers has occurred or services have been provided. The change in unearned revenue was as follows (in millions):

Disaggregation of Revenue

Subscription and Support Revenue by the Company's service offerings

Subscription and support revenues consisted of the following (in millions):

Total Revenue by Geographic Locations

Revenues by geographical region consisted of the following (in millions):

Constant Currency Growth Rates

Subscription and support revenues constant currency growth rates by the Company's service offerings were as follows:

Revenue constant currency growth rates by geographical region were as follows:

Current remaining performance obligation constant currency growth rates were as follows:

Non-GAAP Financial Measures: This press release includes information about non-GAAP operating margin, non-GAAP earnings per share, non-GAAP tax rates, free cash flow, constant currency revenue and constant currency current remaining performance obligation growth rates (collectively the “non-GAAP financial measures”). These non-GAAP financial measures are measurements of financial performance that are not prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles and computational methods may differ from those used by other companies. Non-GAAP financial measures are not meant to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for comparable GAAP measures and should be read only in conjunction with the Company’s consolidated financial statements prepared in accordance with GAAP. Management uses both GAAP and non-GAAP measures when planning, monitoring and evaluating the Company’s performance.

The primary purpose of using non-GAAP measures is to provide supplemental information that may prove useful to investors and to enable investors to evaluate the Company’s results in the same way management does. Management believes that supplementing GAAP disclosure with non-GAAP disclosure provides investors with a more complete view of the Company’s operational performance and allows for meaningful period-to-period comparisons and analysis of trends in the Company’s business. Further to the extent that other companies use similar methods in calculating non-GAAP measures, the provision of supplemental non-GAAP information can allow for a comparison of the Company’s relative performance against other companies that also report non-GAAP operating results.

Non-GAAP Operating Margin is the proportion of non-GAAP income from operations as a percentage of GAAP revenue. Non-GAAP income from operations excludes the impact of the following items: stock-based compensation expense, amortization of acquisition-related intangibles, and charges related to the Restructuring Plan. Non-GAAP operating margin for Q1 FY25 reflects our operating priorities, not specific guidance. A reconciliation of non-GAAP operating margin for Q1 FY25 is not available without unreasonable efforts and has been omitted in accordance with SEC rules. Non-GAAP earnings per share excludes, to the extent applicable, the impact of the following items: stock-based compensation expense, amortization of purchased intangibles, charges related to the Restructuring Plan, and income tax adjustments. These items are excluded because the decisions that give rise to them are not made to increase revenue in a particular period, but instead for the Company’s long-term benefit over multiple periods.

As described above, the Company excludes or adjusts for the following in its non-GAAP results and guidance:

• Stock-Based Compensation Expense: The Company’s compensation strategy includes the use of stock-based compensation expense to attract and retain employees and executives. It is principally aimed at aligning their interests with those of our stockholders and at long-term employee retention, rather than to motivate or reward operational performance for any particular period. Thus, stock-based compensation expense varies for reasons that are generally unrelated to operational decisions and performance in any particular period.

• Amortization of Purchased Intangibles: The Company views amortization of acquisition-related intangible assets, such as the amortization of the cost associated with an acquired Company’s research and development efforts, trade names, customer lists and customer relationships, and in some cases, acquired lease intangibles, as items arising from pre-acquisition activities determined at the time of an acquisition. While these intangible assets are continually evaluated for impairment, amortization of the cost of purchased intangibles is a static expense, which is not typically affected by operations during any particular period. Although the Company excludes the amortization of purchased intangibles from these non-GAAP measures, management believes that it is important for investors to understand that such intangible assets were recorded as part of purchase accounting and contribute to revenue generation.

• Restructuring: Restructuring charges are costs associated with a formal restructuring plan and may include employee notice period costs and severance payments, lease or contract termination costs, asset impairments, accelerated depreciation and amortization, and other related expenses. The Company excludes these restructuring charges because they are distinct from ongoing operational costs and it does not believe they are reflective of current and expected future business performance and operating results.

• Gains on Strategic Investments, net: The Company records all fair value adjustments to its equity securities held within the strategic investment portfolio through the statement of operations. As it is not possible to forecast future gains and losses, the Company assumes no change to the value of its strategic investment portfolio in its GAAP and non-GAAP estimates for future periods, including its guidance. Gains on Strategic Investments, net, are included in its GAAP financial statements.

• Income Tax Effects and Adjustments: The Company utilizes a fixed long-term projected non-GAAP tax rate in order to provide better consistency across the interim reporting periods by eliminating the effects of items such as changes in the tax valuation allowance and tax effects of acquisition-related costs, since each of these can vary in size and frequency. When projecting this long-term rate, the Company evaluated a three-year financial projection that excludes the direct impact of the following non-cash items: stock-based expenses and the amortization of purchased intangibles. The projected rate also considers factors including the Company’s expected tax structure, its tax positions in various jurisdictions and key legislation in major jurisdictions where the Company operates. For fiscal 2023, the Company used a projected non-GAAP tax rate 22.0%. For fiscal 2024, the Company uses a projected non-GAAP tax rate of 23.5%, which reflects currently available information, as well as other factors and assumptions. The non-GAAP tax rate could be subject to change for a variety of reasons, including the rapidly evolving global tax environment, significant changes in the Company’s geographic earnings mix due to acquisition activity, or other changes to the Company’s strategy or business operations. The Company will re-evaluate its long-term rate as appropriate.

The Company presents constant currency information to provide a framework for assessing how the Company's underlying business performed excluding the effect of foreign currency rate fluctuations. To present constant currency revenue growth rates, current and comparative prior period results for entities reporting in currencies other than United States dollars are converted into United States dollars at the weighted average exchange rate for the quarter being compared to rather than the actual exchange rates in effect during that period. To present current remaining performance obligation growth rates on a constant currency basis, current remaining performance obligation balances in local currencies in previous comparable periods are converted using the United States dollar currency exchange rate as of the most recent balance sheet date.

The Company defines the non-GAAP measure free cash flow as GAAP net cash provided by operating activities, less capital expenditures.

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