Informatica

$Salesforce(CRM.US) Salesforce is exposed to the AI industry because some of its products and services can be automated. To address these concerns, the company has continued to launch its own AI tools, with its Agentforce crossing the $1 billion mark in the last quarter. Analysts expect that Salesforce’s business will continue slowing in the coming years. Data shows that the company’s annual revenue will grow by 11% this year to $46 billion. It is also expected to slow to 9% to $50.5 billion next year. Crucially, this revenue growth includes its recent acquisitions. It acquired Informatica in a $8 billion deal last year. while spending $3.6 billion to buy Fin, a company offering an autonomous customer service agent platform this year. In its recent earnings, Salesforce said that its revenue jumped by 13% YoY to $11.1 billion, with Informatica contributing $444 million. As such, excluding Informatica, its annual growth was just 8.5%. This has led to Saleforce being one of the worst performing stocks to date. @Captain's Treasure

$Salesforce(CRM.US)

Salesforce: Agentic AI Is Disrupting SaaS, But Not Killing It

The market fears that agentic AI will commoditise SaaS applications by allowing AI agents to interact directly with enterprise data. While this threatens seat-based pricing models, I believe Salesforce remains one of the best-positioned incumbents to survive and potentially benefit. Salesforce generated US$41.5bn revenue in FY2026, holds US$72.4bn of remaining performance obligations (RPO), and produced US$14.4bn of free cash flow—evidence of a deeply embedded enterprise platform. (Salesforce⁠)

More importantly, Salesforce is rapidly shifting from CRM software to AI infrastructure. Agentforce ARR reached US$800m in FY2026 and exceeded US$1.2bn by 1Q27, while Agentforce and Data Cloud ARR surpassed US$3.4bn, growing more than 200% YoY. The company has also closed over 29,000 Agentforce deals. (Salesforce⁠)

The acquisitions of Informatica (US$8bn) and Fin (US$3.6bn) are not knee-jerk responses. Informatica strengthens data governance and metadata management—the foundation AI agents require to operate safely—while Fin adds proven AI customer-service automation capabilities. (Salesforce Investor Relations⁠)

The key risk is execution. Investors worry Salesforce is assembling a patchwork of acquisitions rather than a unified platform, reflected by the stock’s sharp decline in 2026. (MarketWatch⁠)

My view: Agentic AI will compress traditional SaaS valuations, but Salesforce’s future lies in becoming the system of record, data layer, and orchestration platform for enterprise AI. If AI agents become the interface, Salesforce intends to own the infrastructure underneath.

Salesforce 4Q26 First Take: Results were broadly lackluster. Revenue growth ticked up as expected, with no upside surprise, while GPM stayed under pressure and expenses rose sharply across the board, driving a notable GAAP OP miss. cRPO growth also fell short of buyside expectations, skewing market reaction negative.

1) Total revenue and subscription revenue rose 11% and 10% YoY cc, respectively, both accelerating by 2ppt QoQ. Roughly 4ppt of that lift came from consolidating Informatica, underscoring soft underlying growth. Versus expectations, the print merely matched.

2) Across the five major product lines, all segments except Platform (which absorbed Informatica) saw cc growth that was slightly slower vs. last quarter or at best flat. Again, core organic momentum failed to improve.

3) cRPO ended the quarter at $35.1bn, up 13% YoY cc, which appears 2ppt faster than last quarter. However, consolidation contributed about 4ppt, and buyside was looking for 14%–15%, implying a miss.

4) Profitability weakened: GPM declined YoY and QoQ, likely dragged by AI workloads such as Agentforce that carry heavier compute and lower margins. Total opex growth re-accelerated to ~15% YoY (after years in single digits), above both Street expectations and revenue growth, with R&D, S&M, and G&A all moving higher. With growth soft and spend rising, OPM contracted by 1.5ppt YoY.

5) Guidance (cc): next-quarter total revenue +10%–11% YoY, a slight uptick similar to this quarter, with consolidation still a 4ppt tailwind and roughly in line with Bloomberg consensus. cRPO is guided to grow 13%, same as this quarter, showing no acceleration. Diluted EPS guidance is ~5% below Bloomberg, leaving little to cheer on either the top line or the bottom line. $Salesforce(CRM.US)

Salesforce F3Q26 Quick Interpretation: Overall, Salesforce's financial performance for the quarter was average, with most indicators slightly below market expectations. However, more critical operational metrics such as cRPO and new orders were satisfactory. The more notable aspect was the acceleration in revenue and cRPO growth in the next quarter guidance, boosted by the acquisition of Informatica. Specifically:

1) Total revenue for this quarter increased by 8.6% year-on-year, slowing down by about 1 percentage point compared to the previous quarter, slightly below expectations. Meanwhile, due to the impact of AI investments, the year-on-year increase in gross margin was only 0.3 percentage points, resulting in a gross profit growth rate of only 9%, also slightly below expectations.

As total operating expenses grew by 6.8% year-on-year, without significant acceleration, actual spending was slightly below market expectations, partially offsetting the slowdown in growth for the third quarter. Ultimately, operating profit and free cash flow fell short of expectations. The quarterly financial report performance was evidently not good.

2) Partly due to the low base in the same period last year, this quarter's cRPO (+11% yoy) and new order growth rates accelerated quarter-on-quarter, showing a better trend compared to past performance.

3) The bigger highlight is that the company has guided next quarter's revenue growth to increase to 11%~12%, and cRPO growth to 15%. However, it should be noted that the acceleration is almost entirely due to the benefits of consolidating Informatica and favorable exchange rates.

4) The most watched Agentforce-related business also made steady progress this quarter. Agentforce and Data 360 annualized revenue reached 1.4 billion, up from 1.2 billion last quarter, continuing to rise. Among them, Agentforce contributed annualized revenue of over 500 million, a year-on-year increase of 330%, with user numbers also increasing by 70%. $Salesforce(CRM.US)