Shares of customer relationship management (CRM) software company Salesforce (NYSE: CRM) are up 100% year to date in 2023, as of this writing. These returns have crushed the otherwise impressive 24% gain for the S&P 500. And the explanation for Salesforce's outperformance can be simplistic.

In the earnings call for the fiscal third quarter of 2024, co-founder and CEO Marc Benioff started his commentary liberally, using words like "unbelievable," "incredible," and "exciting." And he was largely referring to Salesforce's cash flow.

In Q3, Salesforce had an operating cash flow of $1.5 billion, up a stunning 389% year over year. And to be clear, the company's cash-flow growth isn't entirely recent. The trend has been ongoing for years and is a big reason Salesforce stock has been a winner, as the chart below shows.

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Source Fool.com