Salesforce CEO calls guidance ‘appropriately conservative’ as stock declines after earnings

In a Wednesday interview with CNBC’s Jim Cramer, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff defended the guidance his company issued — even as the figures disappointed Wall Street.

“Our results are absolutely fantastic and our guidance is also, you know, is always appropriately conservative,” Benioff said.

The enterprise software company posted its quarterly results Wednesday after close. Although the company shared disappointing guidance, it managed to beat estimates for earnings and revenue. The stock dipped more than 5% in extended trading.

Salesforce has lagged behind its peers this year as investors worry about the company’s revenue growth, which has stalled in the single digits since the middle of last year, CNBC reported. The stock is down over 23% year-to-date.

Benioff said Salesforce’s customers are pleased with its artificial intelligence agent product, which he said is not just “repackaged ChatGPT,” but technology that is “giving them the ability to fundamentally transform their business.”

Salesforce has also reshaped its own business with AI agents, according to Benioff. He said the company has “reduced the number of heads we have in service and support because we have supplemented that with agents.”

Benioff said Salesforce has seen success with its biggest customer, the U.S. government. He said the outfit does business with the Department of Defense and managed to beat out Palantir in a deal with the the army.

“We had a tremendous success against Palantir, because, by the way, our prices are just so much lower,” Benioff said. “We’re offering a very competitive product as a much lower cost,” he continued.