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(Bloomberg) -- Salesforce Inc. gave a fiscal-year revenue forecast that fell short of estimates, dimming optimism that the company’s new artificial intelligence product would spur faster sales growth.
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Revenue will be $40.5 billion to $40.9 billion in the year ending January 2026, the San Francisco-based company said Wednesday in a statement. Analysts, on average, estimated $41.5 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Adjusted operating margin will be about 34% compared with an average analyst estimate of 33.9%.
The top maker of customer management software has focused on pushing “Agentforce,” which is meant to complete tasks such as customer service without needing direction from a person. Salesforce launched the product in October, and faces competition from software companies such as Microsoft Corp. and ServiceNow Inc., which are pursuing similar visions.
The new product is expected to create a modest contribution to revenue in fiscal year 2026 and a “more meaningful” contribution in the following year, Chief Financial Officer Amy Weaver said on a call with analysts after the results.
Still, Salesforce said it already had 3,000 paying customers for Agentforce. Chief Executive Officer Marc Benioff touted that performance and cited its use by customers such as Pfizer Inc., Singapore Air, and the gym chain Equinox.
The company also said that its business segment including Data Cloud and Agentforce hit $900 million in recurring revenue, more than doubling since the same period a year prior. While Salesforce’s revenue guidance was slightly weaker than anticipated, the AI data points shared by the company were strong, wrote Raimo Lenschow, an analyst at Barclays.
For the fiscal fourth quarter that ended Jan. 31, revenue rose 7.6% to $9.99 billion. It marked the third consecutive quarter of single-digit sales growth for the software company, which had long enjoyed quicker expansion.
Remaining performance obligations, a measure of bookings, were $63.4 billion, exceeding estimates. Profit, excluding some items, was $2.78 per share, compared with an average estimate of $2.61.
The shares slipped about 4% in extended trading after closing at $307.33 in New York. The stock had gained 2.3% over the past 12 months, trailing many software peers.