Earnings results often indicate what direction a company will take in the months ahead. With Q1 behind us, let’s have a look at ZoomInfo (NASDAQ: ZI) and its peers.

Companies need to be able to interact with and sell to their customers as efficiently as possible. This reality coupled with the ongoing migration of enterprises to the cloud drives demand for cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) software that integrates data analytics with sales and marketing functions.

The 4 sales software stocks we track reported a strong Q1. As a group, revenues beat analysts’ consensus estimates by 2.1% while next quarter’s revenue guidance was in line.

Amidst this news, share prices of the companies have had a rough stretch. On average, they are down 5.2% since the latest earnings results.

Weakest Q1: ZoomInfo (NASDAQ: ZI)

Founded in 2007 as DiscoveryOrg and renamed after a merger in 2019, ZoomInfo (NASDAQ: ZI) is a software as a service product that provides sales departments with access to a database of prospective clients.

ZoomInfo reported revenues of $305.7 million, down 1.4% year on year. This print exceeded analysts’ expectations by 3.2%. Overall, it was a strong quarter for the company with an impressive beat of analysts’ billings estimates and a solid beat of analysts’ annual recurring revenue estimates.

“We delivered another quarter of better-than-expected financial results and Upmarket momentum,” said Henry Schuck, ZoomInfo Founder and CEO.

ZoomInfo scored the biggest analyst estimates beat but had the slowest revenue growth and slowest revenue growth of the whole group. The company added 1 enterprise customers paying more than $100,000 annually to reach a total of 1,868. The results were likely priced in, however, and the stock is flat since reporting. It currently trades at $10.28.

Is now the time to buy ZoomInfo? Access our full analysis of the earnings results here, it’s free.

Best Q1: Freshworks (NASDAQ: FRSH)

Founded in Chennai, India in 2010 with the idea of creating a “fresh” helpdesk product, Freshworks (NASDAQ: FRSH) offers a broad range of software targeted at small and medium-sized businesses.

Freshworks reported revenues of $196.3 million, up 18.9% year on year, outperforming analysts’ expectations by 2.1%. The business had a strong quarter with accelerating growth in large customers and an impressive beat of analysts’ EBITDA estimates.

Freshworks achieved the fastest revenue growth among its peers. The company added 717 enterprise customers paying more than $5,000 annually to reach a total of 23,275. The market seems content with the results as the stock is up 2.8% since reporting. It currently trades at $14.75.

Is now the time to buy Freshworks? Access our full analysis of the earnings results here, it’s free.

HubSpot (NYSE: HUBS)

Started in 2006 by two MIT grad students, HubSpot (NYSE: HUBS) is a software-as-a-service platform that helps small and medium-sized businesses market themselves, sell, and get found on the internet.

HubSpot reported revenues of $714.1 million, up 15.7% year on year, exceeding analysts’ expectations by 2%. It may have had the worst quarter among its peers, but its results were still good as it also locked in a solid beat of analysts’ billings estimates and an impressive beat of analysts’ EBITDA estimates.

As expected, the stock is down 17.8% since the results and currently trades at $541.90.

Read our full analysis of HubSpot’s results here.

Salesforce (NYSE: CRM)

Launched in 1999 from a rented one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco by Marc Benioff and his three co-founders, Salesforce (NYSE: CRM) is a software-as-a-service platform that helps companies access, manage, and share sales information such as leads.

Salesforce reported revenues of $9.83 billion, up 7.6% year on year. This number surpassed analysts’ expectations by 0.8%. It was a strong quarter as it also put up an impressive beat of analysts’ EBITDA estimates and a solid beat of analysts’ billings estimates.

Salesforce had the weakest performance against analyst estimates among its peers. The stock is down 5% since reporting and currently trades at $262.45.

Read our full, actionable report on Salesforce here, it’s free.

Market Update

Thanks to the Fed’s series of rate hikes in 2022 and 2023, inflation has cooled significantly from its post-pandemic highs, drawing closer to the 2% goal. This disinflation has occurred without severely impacting economic growth, suggesting the success of a soft landing. The stock market thrived in 2024, spurred by recent rate cuts (0.5% in September and 0.25% in November), and a notable surge followed Donald Trump’s presidential election win in November, propelling indices to historic highs. Nonetheless, the outlook for 2025 remains clouded by potential trade policy changes and corporate tax discussions, which could impact business confidence and growth. The path forward holds both optimism and caution as new policies take shape.

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