For most of its history, Salesforce (NYSE: CRM) has been immune to economic conditions as it benefitted from a huge surge in corporations upping their IT and enterprise spending. Salesforce's software also became integral to how companies managed their customer relations, and it resulted in a consistent track record of revenue growth and user adoption.
Now, the company seems to be at a crossroads as it continues seeking new ways to find growth amid this challenging environment which is also beginning to impact corporate spending. These challenging times resulted in a management shakeup at the company as co-CEO Bret Taylor left, while founder and previous co-CEO Marc Benioff resumes his place as the sole head of the company. Another announcement was that Slack founder Stewart Butterfield was also leaving the company.
Inside the Numbers
In Q3, the company reported $1.40 per share in earnings which exceeded analysts' estimates of $1.21 per share. Revenue also edged out estimates at $7.84 billion vs $7.82 billion. Overall, the company's revenues were up 14%, while earnings were slightly lower. Operating cash flow was $313 million for the quarter which was down 23% from last year.
For the next quarter, the company sees revenue between $7.9 billion and $8.03 billion which was below analysts' expectations. The company attributed this to the strong dollar which it impacts will reduce revenues by $900 million in its fiscal Q4.
The Sales Cloud division comprises the bulk of the business and generated $7.2 billion in revenue, a 13% increase from last year. Platform and Other categories which include Slack generated $1.5 billion in sales, an 18% increase.
Overall, Salesforce's shares are down by 48% YTD. It's also notable that the stock is hovering around its 52-week lows even while many tech stocks are enjoying healthy rallies since early October.
One factor may be tax-loss selling as software and enterprise stocks have been over-owned by institutions and money managers for nearly a decade due to low rates and their strong performance. Now, these stocks have fallen out of favor due to higher rates, and many of these businesses reaching maturity.
For contrarian-minded investors, this could prove to be an opportunity, especially for companies like Salesforce which continue to grow and are sporting attractive valuations. Currently, it has a forward P/E of 23 which is impressive given its double-digit growth and juicy margins.