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sales force Shares soared 5% on Friday, extending a bull run that started after the company’s better-than-expected earnings report earlier in the week.
The stock has risen 13% over the past five days, its best weekly performance since December 2023.
The company reported adjusted earnings per share of $3.25, beating Wall Street’s expectations of $2.86 per share. Sales rose 8.6% year over year to $10.26 billion, but fell slightly short of analysts’ expectations of $10.27 billion.
The artificial intelligence boom has propelled some tech companies to record growth rates, but it’s been a rocky year for cloud software companies as investors question whether artificial intelligence will make the industry obsolete.
Salesforce hopes to convince Wall Street that AI can enhance rather than replace its products.
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff told CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Thursday that “for some reason investors think software companies are under threat from AI, but the opposite is actually true.”
During the third quarter, the company acquired Regrello and Waii, startups that use AI to generate code with natural language instructions.
Analysts are more optimistic about 2026, even though Salesforce stock is down 22% since the beginning of the year compared to the Nasdaq’s 22% rise.
Mizuho analysts said, “CRM (Salesforce) continues to be used for digital transformation, and we expect it to continue to see strong growth.” “At the same time, we believe CRM can maintain financial discipline and continue to improve operating margins and FCF margins.”
Analysts highlighted Salesforce’s AI platform Agentforce, which builds agents that automate business tasks and streamline workflows.
While investors were initially skeptical of the platform, Kantar analysts were encouraged by its strong adoption in the customer service space.
“We believe CRM is starting to formalize and mature its strategy, which should make it easier for customers to understand and adopt Agentforce,” Cantor analysts wrote.
Agentforce’s annual recurring revenue increased 330% year over year to $540 million.
“The reason everyone is so excited about Agentforce is because this is what AI is all about,” Benioff said. “We bring together humans and data, AI and apps to deliver great experiences for businesses.”
Featured: Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff talks one-on-one with Jim Cramer
