Salesforce Shares Climb Following Earnings Report as Software Industry Indicates Potential Recovery
Written by Emily J. Thompson, Senior Investment Analyst
Updated: Feb 26 2026
0mins
Should l Buy CRM?
Source: Barron's
- Software Stocks Performance: Software stocks experienced a rise on Thursday following positive earnings from Salesforce.
- Investor Confidence: The earnings report provided a much-needed boost in confidence for investors in the software sector.
- Market Outlook: Some experts suggest that the software sector may have reached a bottom, indicating potential for recovery.
- Salesforce's Impact: Salesforce's strong performance is seen as a key factor influencing the overall sentiment in the software market.
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Analyst Views on CRM
Wall Street analysts forecast CRM stock price to rise
39 Analyst Rating
29 Buy
9 Hold
1 Sell
Moderate Buy
Current: 186.670
Low
223.00
Averages
326.40
High
405.00
Current: 186.670
Low
223.00
Averages
326.40
High
405.00
About CRM
Salesforce, Inc. is a customer relationship management (CRM) technology company. Its artificial intelligence (AI) powered Agentforce 360 Platform offers sales, service, marketing, commerce, collaboration, data management, integration, analytics, and information technology (IT) service solutions. It enables customers to build and deploy digital labor for employees and customers, leveraging autonomous AI agents across business functions. Its service offerings include Agentforce Sales, Agentforce Service, Agentforce 360 Platform, Slack and Others. The Agentforce Sales provides sales capabilities and tools built for organizations across prospecting, sales engagement, team collaboration, sales analytics and AI, sales programs, sales performance, partner management, and revenue and orders. The Agentforce Service provides field service solutions that enable companies to connect service agents, dispatchers and mobile employees through platform to schedule, dispatch and manage jobs.
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.
Skepticism on SaaS Companies' AI Hype
- AI Paradox Unveiled: Jackson's analysis of 716 SaaS earnings calls over two decades reveals that companies in the top quintile of AI language density underperformed the bottom quintile by 5.4 percentage points over the following 90 days, indicating an overreaction to AI hype in the market.
- Shifting Market Sentiment: He argues that many SaaS firms are overvalued due to growth narratives driven by AI, facing risks of slowing organic growth, rising customer acquisition costs, and deteriorating pricing power, particularly as enterprise spending tightens.
- Short Position Strategy: Jackson has established short positions in Salesforce, Asana, DocuSign, and Atlassian, all of which are trading at multi-year lows, with Asana hitting an all-time low, reflecting a pessimistic outlook on their future performance.
- Comparative Industry Analysis: While companies like CrowdStrike and Zscaler benefit from AI advancements, Jackson believes the market is punishing all related firms too harshly, leading to misjudgments in investment choices among investors.
See More
Investment Opportunities Amid AI Disruption
- ServiceNow's Strategic Response: Despite a 35% stock drop in 2026, ServiceNow has enhanced its platform's competitiveness by launching an autonomous workforce product that utilizes AI to handle over 90% of employee IT requests, thereby maintaining its market position in the AI era.
- Sustained Revenue Growth: ServiceNow reported a 21% year-over-year growth in Q4 2025, with sales reaching $3.6 billion, and expects a 22% increase in subscription sales in Q1 2026, demonstrating strong business resilience.
- Salesforce's AI Integration: Salesforce achieved record revenue of $11.2 billion in Q4 fiscal 2026, with Agentforce's annual recurring revenue soaring 169% year-over-year to $800 million, indicating high customer adoption of its AI solutions.
- Attractive Investment Timing: With both companies' stock prices nearing 52-week lows, the current drop in their price-to-earnings ratios presents an appealing investment opportunity in ServiceNow and Salesforce, especially given their ongoing healthy business performance.
See More
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- Market Reaction: In 2026, Wall Street's fears that AI could render some software companies obsolete led to a significant sell-off in software stocks, with ServiceNow and Salesforce experiencing declines of 35% and 32% respectively, reflecting a pessimistic outlook on their future prospects.
- AI Integration: Despite the threats, ServiceNow has enhanced its market competitiveness by launching an autonomous workforce product that utilizes data and knowledge from its platform, enabling AI agents to handle over 90% of employee IT requests, thus improving efficiency.
- Financial Performance: ServiceNow reported a 21% year-over-year growth in Q4 2025, with sales reaching $3.6 billion, including $3.5 billion in subscriptions, indicating stable recurring revenue, and it expects Q1 2026 subscription sales to rise by 22% to around $3.7 billion.
- Salesforce Growth: Salesforce achieved record revenue of $11.2 billion in Q4 fiscal 2026, with Agentforce's annual recurring revenue increasing by 169% year-over-year to $800 million, demonstrating growing customer adoption of its AI solutions, while also raising its dividend by 6% to $0.44 per share in February, enhancing its investment appeal.
See More
Microsoft Faces AI Growth Pressure as Stock Plummets
- Stock Plunge: Microsoft experienced a 23% drop in stock price during Q1, marking its worst quarterly performance since the 2008 financial crisis, significantly outpacing the Nasdaq's 7% decline, indicating investor concerns over its AI growth prospects that could impact future financing capabilities.
- AI Assistant Challenges: Microsoft's Copilot AI assistant has seen low user adoption, with only 3% of commercial Office customers holding licenses, forcing the company to allocate Azure cloud resources for improvements to maintain market share amid fierce competition.
- Executive Shake-up: Microsoft reassigned Copilot development head Mustafa Suleyman and appointed former Snap executive Jacob Andreou to lead the Copilot experience for consumers and commercial clients, raising market concerns about the company's strategic direction and potentially affecting team morale.
- Cloud Business Growth: Despite challenges, Microsoft's Azure cloud service achieved a 39% revenue growth in the December quarter, with commercial remaining performance obligations exceeding $625 billion, reflecting strong demand in the cloud infrastructure market that may support the company's future.
See More
Microsoft Faces Challenges as Stock Plummets 23% in Q1
- Disappointing Quarterly Performance: Microsoft experienced a staggering 23% drop in stock value during Q1 2023, marking its steepest decline since the 2008 financial crisis, reflecting investor concerns over its AI prospects and resulting in significant market capitalization loss.
- Concerns Over AI ROI: While Microsoft remains a leader in cloud computing and productivity software, its AI assistant Copilot has only achieved a 3% adoption rate among commercial Office customers, failing to meet market expectations and potentially hindering future revenue growth.
- Executive Shake-Up Impact: The recent reassignment of Copilot development head Mustafa Suleyman raises concerns about leadership effectiveness, especially as the new team faces intense competition from rivals like Google and OpenAI, which could affect the company's strategic direction.
- Strong Cloud Business Growth: Despite challenges, Microsoft's Azure cloud service reported a 39% revenue increase in the December quarter, with commercial remaining performance obligations exceeding $625 billion, indicating strong potential and demand in the AI sector.
See More
Top Five AI Stocks to Invest $10,000
- Google's AI Edge: Alphabet (GOOGL) is priced at $287.39 with a market cap of $3.3 trillion, leveraging its custom AI chips and the integration of Gemini models to drive robust growth, which is expected to enhance its competitive position in the market.
- Amazon's Undervalued Potential: Amazon (AMZN) trades at $208.37 with a market cap of $2.2 trillion, and despite accelerating growth in its cloud computing segment, it has a forward P/E ratio of only 27, indicating significant investment return potential in e-commerce and cloud.
- ServiceNow's AI Growth: ServiceNow (NOW) is priced around $100, achieving $600 million in annual contract revenue, expected to exceed $1 billion by year-end, driven by its NowAssist AI solution and AI Control Tower, resulting in a 20% revenue growth.
- Salesforce's Market Position: Salesforce (CRM) trades at a P/E ratio below 12.5, and with the introduction of Data 360 and the acquisition of Informatica, it solidifies its leadership in customer relationship management and AI, showcasing substantial future growth potential.
See More
Skepticism on SaaS Companies' AI Hype
- AI Paradox Unveiled: Jackson's analysis of 716 SaaS earnings calls over two decades reveals that companies in the top quintile of AI language density underperformed the bottom quintile by 5.4 percentage points over the following 90 days, indicating an overreaction to AI hype in the market.
- Shifting Market Sentiment: He argues that many SaaS firms are overvalued due to growth narratives driven by AI, facing risks of slowing organic growth, rising customer acquisition costs, and deteriorating pricing power, particularly as enterprise spending tightens.
- Short Position Strategy: Jackson has established short positions in Salesforce, Asana, DocuSign, and Atlassian, all of which are trading at multi-year lows, with Asana hitting an all-time low, reflecting a pessimistic outlook on their future performance.
- Comparative Industry Analysis: While companies like CrowdStrike and Zscaler benefit from AI advancements, Jackson believes the market is punishing all related firms too harshly, leading to misjudgments in investment choices among investors.
See More
Investment Opportunities Amid AI Disruption
- ServiceNow's Strategic Response: Despite a 35% stock drop in 2026, ServiceNow has enhanced its platform's competitiveness by launching an autonomous workforce product that utilizes AI to handle over 90% of employee IT requests, thereby maintaining its market position in the AI era.
- Sustained Revenue Growth: ServiceNow reported a 21% year-over-year growth in Q4 2025, with sales reaching $3.6 billion, and expects a 22% increase in subscription sales in Q1 2026, demonstrating strong business resilience.
- Salesforce's AI Integration: Salesforce achieved record revenue of $11.2 billion in Q4 fiscal 2026, with Agentforce's annual recurring revenue soaring 169% year-over-year to $800 million, indicating high customer adoption of its AI solutions.
- Attractive Investment Timing: With both companies' stock prices nearing 52-week lows, the current drop in their price-to-earnings ratios presents an appealing investment opportunity in ServiceNow and Salesforce, especially given their ongoing healthy business performance.
See More
Software Stocks Sell-Off Due to AI Threats
- Market Reaction: In 2026, Wall Street's fears that AI could render some software companies obsolete led to a significant sell-off in software stocks, with ServiceNow and Salesforce experiencing declines of 35% and 32% respectively, reflecting a pessimistic outlook on their future prospects.
- AI Integration: Despite the threats, ServiceNow has enhanced its market competitiveness by launching an autonomous workforce product that utilizes data and knowledge from its platform, enabling AI agents to handle over 90% of employee IT requests, thus improving efficiency.
- Financial Performance: ServiceNow reported a 21% year-over-year growth in Q4 2025, with sales reaching $3.6 billion, including $3.5 billion in subscriptions, indicating stable recurring revenue, and it expects Q1 2026 subscription sales to rise by 22% to around $3.7 billion.
- Salesforce Growth: Salesforce achieved record revenue of $11.2 billion in Q4 fiscal 2026, with Agentforce's annual recurring revenue increasing by 169% year-over-year to $800 million, demonstrating growing customer adoption of its AI solutions, while also raising its dividend by 6% to $0.44 per share in February, enhancing its investment appeal.
See More
Microsoft Faces AI Growth Pressure as Stock Plummets
- Stock Plunge: Microsoft experienced a 23% drop in stock price during Q1, marking its worst quarterly performance since the 2008 financial crisis, significantly outpacing the Nasdaq's 7% decline, indicating investor concerns over its AI growth prospects that could impact future financing capabilities.
- AI Assistant Challenges: Microsoft's Copilot AI assistant has seen low user adoption, with only 3% of commercial Office customers holding licenses, forcing the company to allocate Azure cloud resources for improvements to maintain market share amid fierce competition.
- Executive Shake-up: Microsoft reassigned Copilot development head Mustafa Suleyman and appointed former Snap executive Jacob Andreou to lead the Copilot experience for consumers and commercial clients, raising market concerns about the company's strategic direction and potentially affecting team morale.
- Cloud Business Growth: Despite challenges, Microsoft's Azure cloud service achieved a 39% revenue growth in the December quarter, with commercial remaining performance obligations exceeding $625 billion, reflecting strong demand in the cloud infrastructure market that may support the company's future.
See More
Microsoft Faces Challenges as Stock Plummets 23% in Q1
- Disappointing Quarterly Performance: Microsoft experienced a staggering 23% drop in stock value during Q1 2023, marking its steepest decline since the 2008 financial crisis, reflecting investor concerns over its AI prospects and resulting in significant market capitalization loss.
- Concerns Over AI ROI: While Microsoft remains a leader in cloud computing and productivity software, its AI assistant Copilot has only achieved a 3% adoption rate among commercial Office customers, failing to meet market expectations and potentially hindering future revenue growth.
- Executive Shake-Up Impact: The recent reassignment of Copilot development head Mustafa Suleyman raises concerns about leadership effectiveness, especially as the new team faces intense competition from rivals like Google and OpenAI, which could affect the company's strategic direction.
- Strong Cloud Business Growth: Despite challenges, Microsoft's Azure cloud service reported a 39% revenue increase in the December quarter, with commercial remaining performance obligations exceeding $625 billion, indicating strong potential and demand in the AI sector.
See More
Top Five AI Stocks to Invest $10,000
- Google's AI Edge: Alphabet (GOOGL) is priced at $287.39 with a market cap of $3.3 trillion, leveraging its custom AI chips and the integration of Gemini models to drive robust growth, which is expected to enhance its competitive position in the market.
- Amazon's Undervalued Potential: Amazon (AMZN) trades at $208.37 with a market cap of $2.2 trillion, and despite accelerating growth in its cloud computing segment, it has a forward P/E ratio of only 27, indicating significant investment return potential in e-commerce and cloud.
- ServiceNow's AI Growth: ServiceNow (NOW) is priced around $100, achieving $600 million in annual contract revenue, expected to exceed $1 billion by year-end, driven by its NowAssist AI solution and AI Control Tower, resulting in a 20% revenue growth.
- Salesforce's Market Position: Salesforce (CRM) trades at a P/E ratio below 12.5, and with the introduction of Data 360 and the acquisition of Informatica, it solidifies its leadership in customer relationship management and AI, showcasing substantial future growth potential.
See More
