Is Salesforce Stock Halal?
Table of Contents
How much of Salesforce’s revenue comes from haram?
Salesforce earns its revenue from the following revenue sources:
- Subscription and support:
Includes subscription fees for accessing Salesforce’s enterprise cloud computing services, revenues associated with software licenses, and offering additional support for enterprises to enhance engagement, conversion, revenue, and loyalty from their customers.
- Professional services and other:
Includes mapping services to apply geography to business processes and streamline efficiencies, project management tools, and implementation services to improve workflows.
Other revenue consists primarily of training fees.
The contributions from each of Salesforce’s revenue segments in their 2020 annual report were as follows:
Practical Islamic Finance concludes:
None of Salesforce’s revenue comes from anything inherently haram.
Does Salesforce rely on interest to operate?
According to the company’s annual report for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2021 (Numbers in thousands, U.S. dollars):
Interest Expense: $126,000
Total Expenses: $20,797,000
Interest Income: $0
Revenue: $21,252,000
Interest Expense / Total Expenses: 0.61%
Interest Income / Revenue: 0%
Salesforce states upon closing their acquisition of Slack, Salesforce expects “an increase in interest expense due to debt agreements to enter into in connection with the pending acquisition.”
Practical Islamic Finance concludes:
Given Salesforce’s current low reliance on interest and the Slack acquisition being a cash and stock deal, Practical Islamic Finance estimates the increase in interest expense will not substantially change Salesforce’s overall reliance on interest.
Riba is used but is not relied upon in Salesforce’s operations.
What is Salesforce’s Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) impact?
Environment
In January 2020, Salesforce partnered with the World Economic Forum to launch 1t.org, a global effort to conserve, restore and grow one trillion trees worldwide by 2030.
As part of its efforts, Salesforce funded 19 projects to plant a total of 10M trees in 2020 and plans to help plant over 100M trees by 2030.
Social
Salesforce has an impressively high Glassdoor rating of 4.4 out of 5.0 from over 9,000 current and previous employees compared to a 3.3 average for all other Glassdoor rated companies.
Benefits Salesforce offers its employees include:
- Donation matching up to $5,000 per year
- Education reimbursement up to $5,250 each calendar year for employees wanting to go back to school
- Employee stock purchase plan
Additionally, Salesforce sourced over 50 million units of PPE for first responders and donated $30 million to support relief efforts during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Governance
In 2019, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) found that Salesforce “paid an effective federal tax rate of 0% or less” in 2018.
The ITEP pointed out in its report that Salesforce “avoided all federal income taxes on $2.6bn of US income.”
Practical Islamic Finance concludes:
While we think Salesforce needs to start paying its fair share of taxes, in aggregate, we find Salesforce to have a net positive ESG impact.
Comfort Rating
From Salesforce’s business, financial, and ESG reviews, Practical Islamic Finance rates Salesforce stock as:
Comfortable to invest in from a Halal perspective.
Sources
Everything You Need to Know about Salesforce Maps (Formerly MapAnything)
Salesforce Implementation [The Complete 2020 Guide]
Fighting Climate Change: Salesforce Surpasses 10 Million Tree Milestone in 12 Months