Salesforce (CRM)
Forward P/E 16.52x against a peer median of 26.86x gives a ratio of 0.62x, well under the 0.90x undervalued line, and trailing P/E 22.44x and P/S 4.51x are also modest for a large software franchise. PEG 0.93 confirms the shares are cheap relative to expected earnings growth, and growth is not collapsing: latest-quarter revenue grew +10.8% YoY (PRIMARY/EDGAR). Delivered demand check: the Application software group's median latest-quarter revenue growth was 14.9% year over year (SEC filings) — demand rising, so the discount is not explained by a shrinking market.
What would change this label: Moves to FAIRLY PRICED if the forward P/E re-rates above ~24x (ratio 0.90x) at unchanged estimates, closing the discount; the undervalued call fails — value-trap path — if revenue growth falls below +5% YoY for two consecutive quarters, which would make 16.52x a fair price for a stalling business rather than a discount.
Salesforce sells the software companies use to track customers and sales. Its shares cost about 17 times next year's expected profits, while similar software companies cost about 27 times — even though Salesforce's sales still grew about 11% last quarter. On these numbers the shares look cheaper than they should be for a business still growing steadily.
Both lines start at 100 on 2020-09-01. Over the full window Salesforce returned -14.35% and the S&P 500 +118.28% (price returns; dividends not reinvested). Worst peak-to-trough fall for Salesforce: -59.2% (2024-12-04 to 2026-06-22). Source: Nasdaq official daily history.
What the label rests on
Forward P/E 16.52x against a peer median of 26.86x gives a ratio of 0.62x, well under the 0.90x undervalued line, and trailing P/E 22.44x and P/S 4.51x are also modest for a large software franchise. PEG 0.93 confirms the shares are cheap relative to expected earnings growth, and growth is not collapsing: latest-quarter revenue grew +10.8% YoY (PRIMARY/EDGAR). Delivered demand check: the Application software group's median latest-quarter revenue growth was 14.9% year over year (SEC filings) — demand rising, so the discount is not explained by a shrinking market. The company’s forward P/E is 16.5× against a peer median of 26.9×. Its own history: UNVERIFIED — no sourced range available. Sector demand read: Delivered demand check: the Application software group's median latest-quarter revenue growth was 14.9% year over year (SEC filings) — demand rising. Latest-quarter sales growth was +10.8% versus a year earlier (SEC filings).
| Company | Price (Oct 28, 2026) | Forward P/E | Trailing P/E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salesforce (CRM) | $242.13 | 16.5× | 22.4× |
| DDOG | $280.37 | 105.7× | 571.6× |
| ADBE | $248.09 | 9.2× | 13.8× |
| CDNS | $336.92 | 35.8× | 67.0× |
| SNPS | $474.42 | 26.9× | 84.1× |
| INTU | $328.07 | 13.8× | 19.9× |
| Peer median | 26.9× |
Multiples: stockanalysis.com (SECONDARY, S&P Global data), fetched Oct 28, 2026. Peer set chosen by sector; the median is the middle value of the set. The label and its numbers were recorded in the programme’s label registry on Oct 28, 2026 and will be scored at 6 and 12 months.
Sales, profit and cash
Gross margin = gross profit divided by sales, from SEC filings.
Free cash flow = cash from operations minus spending on plant and equipment, both from the company’s SEC cash-flow statement. Gaps are quarters where that spending line is not separately tagged in the filings — shown as gaps, never estimated.
| Quarter | Sales | Gross margin | Net income | EPS (GAAP, diluted) | Free cash flow |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q/E Jul 2026 2026-07-31 | $11.3B | 76.7% | $3.5B | 4.29 | $1.1B |
| Q/E Apr 2026 2026-04-30 | $11.1B | 76.9% | $2.1B | 2.42 | $6.6B |
| Q/E Jan 2026 2026-01-31 | $11.2B | 77.6% | $1.9B | — | $5.3B |
| Q/E Oct 2025 2025-10-31 | $10.3B | 78.0% | $2.1B | 2.19 | $2.2B |
| Q/E Jul 2025 2025-07-31 | $10.2B | 78.1% | $1.9B | 1.96 | $605M |
| Q/E Apr 2025 2025-04-30 | $9.8B | 77.0% | $1.5B | 1.59 | $6.3B |
| Q/E Jan 2025 2025-01-31 | $10.0B | 77.8% | $1.7B | — | $3.8B |
| Q/E Oct 2024 2024-10-31 | $9.4B | 77.7% | $1.5B | 1.58 | $1.8B |
| Q/E Jul 2024 2024-07-31 | $9.3B | 76.8% | $1.4B | 1.47 | $755M |
| Q/E Apr 2024 2024-04-30 | $9.1B | 76.3% | $1.5B | 1.56 | $6.1B |
| Q/E Jan 2024 2024-01-31 | $9.3B | 76.9% | $1.4B | — | $3.3B |
| Q/E Oct 2023 2023-10-31 | $8.7B | 75.3% | $1.2B | 1.25 | $1.4B |
The last twelve reported quarters. Full 24-quarter history sits in the data pack behind this page. A dash means the figure is not tagged as a standalone quarter in the company’s SEC facts (the usual case is the fourth quarter, which many companies only report inside the full-year filing) — it is missing, not zero.
Earnings: getting better or worse?
Each box is one quarter’s earnings per share (EPS). Green means EPS was higher than the same quarter a year earlier; red means lower; a dash means the figure is not tagged in the filings.
Basis: GAAP diluted EPS from SEC company facts, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
Key facts
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Company (legal name in filings) | Salesforce, Inc. |
| Chief executive | Marc Benioff (source: https://www.salesforce.com/company/marc-benioff-bio/?d=cta-body-promo-8&bc=OTH) |
| Sector | Technology — Application Software — cloud customer-relationship-management software for sales, service, marketing and commerce |
| Share price (Oct 28, 2026) | $242.13 |
| Market value (market cap) | $198.3B — share price times shares outstanding of 823,000,000 (SEC filings; SEC EDGAR dei EntityCommonStockSharesOutstanding (latest)) |
| Sales, last twelve months | $43.9B |
| Net income, last twelve months | $9.7B |
| Free cash flow, last twelve months | $15.2B |
| Latest reported quarter | Q/E Jul 2026 (of 24 quarters in the data pack) |
| Six-year price return vs S&P 500 | -14.35% vs +118.28% |
| Worst peak-to-trough fall | -59.2% (2024-12-04 to 2026-06-22) |
What we could not verify
- TTM GAAP diluted EPS could not be summed from company facts because at least one of the last four quarters (typically Q4) has no standalone tagged EPS; trailing P/E is therefore taken from the labelled secondary source in valuation_label.md.
- Own-history P/E range not yet compiled for this company in the Phase 1 batch run; the label rests on peer-median, growth and PEG evidence.
- Guidance record (each quarter scored against the guidance the company gave the quarter before) is not yet compiled for this company — it is a Phase 2 layer. The earnings strip below therefore uses reported EPS versus a year earlier, which is fully sourced from filings.
The IT factor — the most exciting thing the market is overlooking — is not assessed on an X-Ray page. It belongs to the Deep Dive (Phase 2), where it gets the evidence standard it needs. Leadership-era scoring (the six years split by chief executive) is likewise a Phase 2 layer; this page names the current chief executive only, from a sourced profile.
Sources
- SEC EDGAR submissions — Filing index; company legal name.
https://data.sec.gov/submissions/CIK0001108524.json - SEC EDGAR company facts — Quarterly financial spine: revenue, gross profit, net income, GAAP diluted EPS, operating cash flow, PP&E capex, buybacks, dividends, diluted shares.
https://data.sec.gov/api/xbrl/companyfacts/CIK0001108524.json - Nasdaq official daily history — Daily closes for the company; SPY (assetclass=etf) saved as raw/nasdaq_spy_raw.json over identical dates.
https://api.nasdaq.com/api/quote/CRM/historical?assetclass=stocks - Valuation multiples and peer figures — stockanalysis.com (SECONDARY, S&P Global data), fetched Oct 28, 2026; see valuation_label.md in the data pack.
Conventions: earliest-filed value per period, as first reported; cash-flow years-to-date differenced quarter by quarter; EPS never differenced; free cash flow = operating cash flow minus plant-and-equipment spending. This page is a dated snapshot — updates are new versions, never silent edits.