August 26, 2026
Bonus Content: CRM Just Broke Out. The Numbers Say It’s Real.
The download link for my Simple Options Trading For Beginners book is about to expire.
Once it goes, the book goes back to $29.97 on the website – same book, same content, just no longer free.
This is one of those things where the people who grab it in the next sixty seconds will have it on their computer forever. The people who don’t will be staring at an order page tomorrow, wishing they’d taken the twenty seconds.
It’s a quick read that finally explains options in plain English. No Greeks. No textbook charts. Just the actual mechanics with step-by-step trade examples.
Grab the free copy before the link expires.
Good Trading,
Bill Poulos
p.s. This link will expire without warning.
CRM Just Broke Out. The Numbers Say It’s Real.
Hey there, bargain hunter. While you were watching the close, Salesforce posted the quarter that ends the debate about whether AI monetization was real or marketing theater.
Scoreboard
Tonight’s Q2 FY2027 results: revenue of $11.35 billion, up about 11% year over year. Inline on the top line. The bottom line was not close. Non-GAAP EPS came in at $5.90 against a consensus of $3.27, an 80% beat. The stock surged roughly 8% to 13% in after-hours trading. That is not a routine quarterly pop. That is a re-rating.
What Actually Happened
The EPS figure is distorted by a $2.6 billion gain on strategic investments, principally Salesforce’s stake in Anthropic. Strip that out and you still have operating leverage running hot. Non-GAAP operating margin held at 34.1%. Free cash flow hit $1.1 billion, up 81% year over year. Operating cash flow rose 71% to $1.3 billion.
The number that matters most to forward-looking investors: cRPO, current remaining performance obligation, came in at $33.5 billion, up 14% year over year in constant currency. That matches Q1’s pace exactly. The backlog is not slowing. It is holding acceleration.
The Agentforce Question Gets an Answer
The standing concern was simple: usage statistics are rising fast, but is any of that translating into new dollars? Combined Agentforce and Data 360 ARR reached nearly $3.9 billion, posting triple-digit year-over-year growth. That is up from nearly $3.4 billion combined Agentforce and Data 360 ARR in Q1. Data 360 ingested 104 trillion records in Q2, up 355% year over year. These are not vanity metrics. They’re contract-backed recurring revenue.
Customers beginning their agentic journey with Salesforce show double the average order value, according to the company’s COO. The cross-sell math is starting to show up in booked revenue, not just product activity logs.
Is It Cheap Now?
Going into tonight, CRM traded around $209, roughly 43% below its December 4, 2024 all-time high close of $363.22. The average analyst price target was $244 to $250 depending on the dataset.
After the after-hours move, the valuation compresses that upside. But a stock trading well below its high, with cRPO holding at 14% growth and AI ARR accelerating toward $4 billion, is not priced for a growth business. It was priced for a mature one. That framing just changed.
Bull / Base / Bear
- Bull: Agentforce monetization keeps compounding. Guidance was lifted $200 million to a $46.25 billion FY27 midpoint. If organic growth (ex-Informatica) reaccelerates toward 10%, this stock has 25% upside on multiple expansion alone.
- Base: cRPO holds at 13-14%, Agentforce ARR crosses $5 billion by fiscal year-end. Stock settles 10-15% above pre-earnings price and grinds higher slowly.
- Bear: The Informatica contribution fades as a tailwind in H2, organic growth reverts to 6-7%, and the Anthropic gain distorts the EPS story enough to frustrate follow-through buyers.
Action Plan
If you held through tonight, hold. The cRPO reading and free cash flow growth justify the move. If you missed it, the breakout is real, but wait for the first pullback toward the old $208-$215 range before sizing in. Chasing a 13% gap open is not a bargain hunter move.
Cheap Investor Checklist
- cRPO growth: 14% Y/Y in Q2. Watch for 13%+ in Q3 to confirm trend.
- Agentforce plus Data 360 ARR: $3.9B and climbing. Target $5B by FY27 year-end.
- Non-GAAP operating margin: 34.1%. Holding flat is acceptable; expansion above 35% is the upside case.
- Free cash flow growth: 81% Y/Y this quarter. Normalize for seasonality in Q3.
- Share count: down 15% year over year from buybacks. Dilution is running in reverse.
- FY27 revenue guidance raised to $46.25B midpoint. Watch Q3 guide for further lift.
- Organic growth ex-Informatica: strip $456M Informatica contribution from $11.35B and recalculate. That number needs to improve.
Bottom Line
If cRPO holds at 14% and Agentforce ARR clears $5 billion by fiscal year-end, the current valuation is too low for a business with 34% non-GAAP margins and free cash flow growing at 80% clips. If organic growth stays stuck in the 6-7% range once Informatica laps, this is a 20x earnings story, not a breakout. Tonight’s report earns a watchlist upgrade to active position for conservative accounts and a first tranche buy for aggressive ones. The breakout candidate just broke out.
