Investment Opportunities Amid Software Stock Declines
Written by Emily J. Thompson, Senior Investment Analyst
Updated: 2 days ago
0mins
Should l Buy CRM?
Source: NASDAQ.COM
- Current Software Market Status: Despite the Dow Jones and S&P 500 reaching new highs, the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF has plunged 32% from its all-time high, indicating a bearish trend in software stocks that investors need to navigate cautiously.
- Salesforce's Growth Potential: Salesforce's Agentforce AI platform generated over $500 million in annual recurring revenue in Q3, up 330% year-over-year, and despite AI threats, the company maintains market leadership through strategic acquisitions and high-margin growth.
- Adobe's Financial Performance: Adobe achieved an 11% sales growth in fiscal 2025, with its Digital Media segment's annual recurring revenue reaching $19.2 billion; despite AI competition, Adobe's buyback of 30.8 million shares enhances earnings per share, showcasing strong cash flow.
- Okta's Market Demand: Okta's RPO increased by 17% year-over-year to nearly $4.3 billion in Q3, and as cybersecurity needs rise, the company leverages AI and machine learning to enhance identity verification services, demonstrating robust market adaptability.
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Analyst Views on CRM
Wall Street analysts forecast CRM stock price to rise
42 Analyst Rating
31 Buy
10 Hold
1 Sell
Moderate Buy
Current: 185.430
Low
223.00
Averages
326.95
High
405.00
Current: 185.430
Low
223.00
Averages
326.95
High
405.00
About CRM
Salesforce, Inc. is a provider of customer relationship management (CRM) technology. The Company helps organizations of any size reimagine their business for the world of artificial intelligence (AI). With Agentforce, its platform, organizations can bring humans together with AI agents to drive customer success on one deeply unified platform. With the Salesforce platform, it delivers a single source of truth, connecting customer data with integrated AI across systems, apps and devices to help companies sell, service, market and conduct commerce from anywhere. Agentforce is a new layer of the Salesforce platform that enables companies to build and deploy AI agents that can respond to inputs, make decisions and take action autonomously across business functions. Agentforce includes a suite of customizable agents for use across sales, service, marketing and commerce. Datablazer is a data-driven innovator, which leverages the Company’s platform to unlock insights and drive decisions.
About the author
Emily J. Thompson
Emily J. Thompson, a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) with 12 years in investment research, graduated with honors from the Wharton School. Specializing in industrial and technology stocks, she provides in-depth analysis for Intellectia’s earnings and market brief reports.
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- AI Industry Developments: Elon Musk criticized AI startup Anthropic for alleged bias while announcing a $30 billion funding round that pushed its valuation to $380 billion, highlighting the intense competition and rapid evolution within the AI sector.
See More
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- Increased Market Volatility: Last week, stocks in software, real estate, financial services, and logistics faced selling pressure due to concerns over AI-related disruptions, with the Nasdaq Composite falling 0.2% and a weekly loss of 2.1%, indicating market sensitivity to AI impacts.
- Consumer Spending Data Focus: This week's highlight will be the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) report on Friday, which will provide insights into consumer spending in December and inflation trends, especially following last week's unexpected slowdown in the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
- Corporate Earnings in Spotlight: Walmart (WMT) is set to release its fourth-quarter earnings on Thursday, marking the first report under new CEO John Furner, making it a key indicator of consumer spending that the market is eagerly anticipating.
- Ongoing AI Impact: As AI tools' potential effects intensify across various sectors, software stocks like Salesforce (CRM) and ServiceNow (NOW) have seen significant declines, reflecting the market's heightened vigilance regarding AI disruptions, necessitating close monitoring of future industry developments.
See More
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- Market Turmoil Intensifies: Over the past few weeks, global stock markets have experienced significant volatility due to concerns over AI disruption, particularly with software companies like Dassault Systemes facing their largest one-day drop in history, indicating high investor sensitivity to AI impacts.
- Wealth Management Under Pressure: Wealth management firms such as St James's Place and Aberdeen Group have suffered severe losses, reflecting market panic over the potential effects of AI, leading to deep financial setbacks for these companies.
- Analyst Warnings: UBS analysts have cautioned that the AI-driven sell-off signifies a
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- Market Reaction: Following the launch of Anthropic's Claude Cowork and its industry-specific plugins, the market experienced panic, with stocks of Salesforce, Intuit, and Atlassian dropping by 27.9%, 33%, and 41.6% respectively, reflecting investor fears that AI tools could replace traditional SaaS platforms.
- Alphabet's Stock Decline: Alphabet's shares fell over 6% in the week after the Claude Cowork announcement, raising concerns among investors about its competitive position in AI, despite not directly offering industry-specific software, which affected market confidence.
- Competitive Pressure from Gemini 3: Google's Gemini 3 LLM update launched in November significantly enhanced its AI capabilities, attracting a surge of paid subscribers, leading investors to worry that Claude Cowork might further poach these users, increasing market uncertainty.
- Investor Buying Opportunity: Despite market volatility, renowned investors like Warren Buffett and Cathie Wood actively increased their stakes in Alphabet during the stock's decline, investing $21.6 million and $15 million respectively, indicating confidence in Alphabet's long-term value and potentially providing a buying opportunity for other investors.
See More
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- Investor Activity: Notable investor Cathie Wood took advantage of the dip by purchasing $21.6 million in Alphabet shares through her Ark Invest funds on February 5, indicating confidence in the company's future potential despite current market challenges.
- Industry Impact: The rollout of Claude Cowork negatively affected several business software companies, with Salesforce, Intuit, and Atlassian experiencing stock declines of 27.9%, 33%, and 41.6%, respectively, reflecting market fears that AI tools could replace traditional SaaS platforms.
- Competitive Pressure: Despite Google's advancements with Gemini 3 in the AI space, investors remain concerned that Claude Cowork could lure away paid subscribers from Gemini, potentially undermining Google's competitive position in the AI market.
See More
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- AI Fears Hit Financial Stocks: Concerns over a new AI-driven tax planning feature led to significant declines in Wells Fargo and Capital One, with shares dropping over 7.4% and nearly 7% respectively, highlighting investor sensitivity to potential threats in the wealth management sector, although Wells Fargo's rating upgrade on Friday provided some stabilization.
- Strong Performance in Industrials: Stocks like Eaton, Honeywell, and GE have continued their strong performance in 2026, with Eaton's shares rising over 4% last week and up 22% year-to-date, reflecting market optimism about economic recovery and driving what Jim Cramer describes as an
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