Key Research Insights for Bank of America, Salesforce, and Pepsi
Written by Emily J. Thompson, Senior Investment Analyst
Updated: Dec 05 2025
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Source: NASDAQ.COM
Zacks Research Daily Highlights: The report features research on 16 major stocks, including Bank of America, Salesforce, and PepsiCo, along with insights on two micro-cap stocks, United Homes Group and AmeriServ Financial, emphasizing the unique nature of their microcap research.
Bank of America Outlook: Despite a strong performance over the past year, Bank of America faces challenges with volatile trading revenues and rising expenses, although it is expected to see revenue growth supported by loan growth and digital improvements.
Salesforce Performance: Salesforce has struggled against industry competition and currency fluctuations, but it benefits from strong demand for digital transformation and its acquisition of Slack, which enhances its market position.
PepsiCo's Business Fundamentals: PepsiCo's shares have underperformed due to cost pressures and currency headwinds, but its third-quarter results show improvement in global business fundamentals, particularly in beverages and convenient foods, indicating potential for long-term growth.
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Analyst Views on CRM
Wall Street analysts forecast CRM stock price to rise over the next 12 months. According to Wall Street analysts, the average 1-year price target for CRM is 326.95 USD with a low forecast of 223.00 USD and a high forecast of 405.00 USD. However, analyst price targets are subjective and often lag stock prices, so investors should focus on the objective reasons behind analyst rating changes, which better reflect the company's fundamentals.
42 Analyst Rating
31 Buy
10 Hold
1 Sell
Moderate Buy
Current: 214.080
Low
223.00
Averages
326.95
High
405.00
Current: 214.080
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.
Salesforce 2025 Stock Review and AI Strategy
- Annual Stock Performance: Salesforce's stock declined nearly 21% in 2025, although a late-year rally driven by aggressive AI initiatives provided some recovery, highlighting market biases against traditional software companies.
- Revenue Growth Volatility: Throughout 2025, Salesforce's year-over-year revenue growth remained in single digits, with GAAP net income fluctuating, showing a 51% improvement at times but overall failing to significantly exceed analyst expectations, which affected investor confidence.
- Pricing Strategy Adjustment: The company implemented a 6% price increase for enterprise clients in August, demonstrating management's proactive approach to enhancing profitability and margins, gradually improving market sentiment and reflecting confidence in future growth.
- AI Platform Launch: At the Dreamforce event, Salesforce unveiled Agentforce 360, focusing on agentic AI that actively performs tasks, setting a new annual revenue target of $60 billion by fiscal 2030, marking a strategic shift in the company's AI direction.
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Analysis of Ongoing Decline in Software Stocks
- Market Trend Analysis: Earnings reports from Meta, Microsoft, and ServiceNow indicate that despite some positive performances, overall market confidence in software stocks continues to decline, leading to sell-offs in companies like Salesforce and Rubrik.
- Earnings Impact: While Meta and Microsoft's earnings had highlights, they failed to effectively boost market sentiment, exacerbating investor concerns about future growth in the software sector and impacting overall industry valuations.
- Investor Reaction: The ongoing sell-off in software stocks reflects investor worries about economic slowdown and intensified industry competition, resulting in greater downward pressure on related stocks in the short term.
- Industry Outlook: As confidence in software stocks wanes, investors may reassess their portfolios, shifting towards more defensive assets to navigate potential economic uncertainties.
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