Software Stocks Face Challenges This Year: What Lies Ahead?
Written by Emily J. Thompson, Senior Investment Analyst
Updated: Dec 16 2025
0mins
Source: Barron's
- Market Performance: Software stocks experienced a decline in 2025, indicating a challenging environment for the sector.
- Investment Caution: Despite the downturn, experts advise against hastily investing in these stocks, suggesting a more measured approach.
- Economic Factors: The drop in software stocks may be influenced by broader economic conditions and market sentiment.
- Long-term Outlook: Investors are encouraged to consider long-term potential rather than reacting to short-term fluctuations in stock prices.
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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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