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Salesforce (CRM) delivered a strong beat-and-raise earnings report for 3Q26, providing shares with a much-needed pop amid a 30% year-to-date plunge for the stock. Q3 revenue reached $10.26 bln, up 9% yr/yr (8% constant currency), while non-GAAP operating margin expanded to 35.5%. Current Remaining Performance Obligations (cRPO) rose 11% to $29.4 bln, exceeding expectations due to robust bookings execution, early renewals, on-prem revenue timing, and a $200 mln FX tailwind.

• cRPO growth reflected the strongest bookings quarter in three years, driven by Agentforce momentum, multi-cloud deals (over 70% of top 100 wins included five-plus clouds), and net new average order value outpacing overall AOV for the first time since FY22.
• Strong geographic performance in North America and EMEA (led by France/UK), small/mid-market strength, and enterprise acceleration offset softer Asia Pacific and select industries like manufacturing.
• Agentforce and Data 360 (formerly Data Cloud, a real-time data unification platform for AI context via ingestion, federation, and zero-copy integration) hit nearly $1.4 bln in ARR, up 114% yr/yr, with Agentforce ARR surging 330% to about $540 mln.
• Agentforce growth stemmed from 18,500+ deals (9,500 paid, up 50% qtr/qtr), 70% qtr/qtr rise in production customers, over 50% of bookings from expansions, and massive usage (3.2 trillion tokens processed, 200 mln LLM calls in Q3).
• Q4 guidance calls for revenue of $11.13-$11.23 bln, handily beating expectations and signaling accelerating Agentforce monetization as enterprises adopt autonomous AI agents for sales, service, and employee tasks like Slackbot.
• However, EPS guidance of $3.02-$3.04 aligned with consensus, potentially capping upside in the stock as investors probe AI ROI amid pricing flexibility and human-agent augmentation.

Briefing.com Analyst Insight:

CRM posted impressive Q3 results with cRPO and bookings crushing estimates, fueled by Agentforce's breakout (330% ARR growth) and Data 360's data foundation scaling to 32 trillion records ingested. Revenue beat and Q4 raise highlight agentic AI traction, but in-line EPS tempers enthusiasm given AI spend scrutiny. With sales capacity up 23%, CRM's pipeline exploding, and Informatica bolstering the $10 bln data layer, the company eyes FY30 reacceleration, though premium valuation demands sustained organic proof beyond AI hype.