Earnings results often indicate what direction a company will take in the months ahead. With Q3 behind us, let’s have a look at Freshworks (NASDAQ: FRSH) 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 Q3. As a group, revenues beat analysts’ consensus estimates by 2.6% while next quarter’s revenue guidance was in line.

While some sales software stocks have fared somewhat better than others, they have collectively declined. On average, share prices are down 3.6% since the latest earnings results.

Best Q3: Freshworks (NASDAQ: FRSH)

Starting as a customer service solution before expanding into a comprehensive software suite, Freshworks (NASDAQ: FRSH) provides AI-powered software-as-a-service solutions that help companies manage customer service, IT support, sales, and marketing functions.

Freshworks reported revenues of $215.1 million, up 15.3% year on year. This print exceeded analysts’ expectations by 3%. Overall, it was a strong quarter for the company with EPS guidance for next quarter exceeding analysts’ expectations and an impressive beat of analysts’ EBITDA estimates.

“Freshworks once again exceeded our previously issued estimates across growth and profitability metrics," said Dennis Woodside, Chief Executive Officer & President of Freshworks.

Interestingly, the stock is up 9.9% since reporting and currently trades at $12.15.

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

Salesforce (NYSE: CRM)

With its cloud-based platform named after its stock ticker symbol CRM (Customer Relationship Management), Salesforce (NYSE: CRM) provides customer relationship management software that helps businesses connect with their customers across sales, service, marketing, and commerce.

Salesforce reported revenues of $10.26 billion, up 8.6% year on year, in line with analysts’ expectations. The business had a strong quarter with full-year EPS guidance exceeding analysts’ expectations and an impressive beat of analysts’ EBITDA estimates.

Salesforce delivered the highest full-year guidance raise among its peers. The market seems happy with the results as the stock is up 8.4% since reporting. It currently trades at $259.10.

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

Weakest Q3: HubSpot (NYSE: HUBS)

Born from the idea that traditional interruptive marketing was becoming less effective, HubSpot (NYSE: HUBS) provides an integrated platform that helps businesses attract, engage, and manage customer relationships through marketing, sales, service, and content management tools.

HubSpot reported revenues of $809.5 million, up 20.9% year on year, exceeding analysts’ expectations by 3%. It may have had the worst quarter among its peers, but its results were still good as it also locked in an impressive beat of analysts’ EBITDA estimates and full-year EPS guidance slightly topping analysts’ expectations.

As expected, the stock is down 19.2% since the results and currently trades at $375.42.

Read our full analysis of HubSpot’s results here.

ZoomInfo (NASDAQ: GTM)

Operating a platform it calls "RevOS" - short for Revenue Operating System - ZoomInfo (NASDAQ: GTM) provides sales, marketing, and recruiting teams with business intelligence and analytics to identify prospects and deliver targeted outreach.

ZoomInfo reported revenues of $318 million, up 4.7% year on year. This number topped analysts’ expectations by 4.7%. It was a strong quarter as it also put up EPS guidance for next quarter exceeding analysts’ expectations and full-year EPS guidance exceeding analysts’ expectations.

ZoomInfo achieved the biggest analyst estimates beat but had the slowest revenue growth and slowest revenue growth among its peers. The company added 3 enterprise customers paying more than $100,000 annually to reach a total of 1,887. The stock is down 13.3% since reporting and currently trades at $10.24.

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

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