Salesforce jumps as latest AI tools set to accelerate demand

(Reuters) - Salesforce shares jumped 12.5% in premarket trading on Wednesday, after the customer relationship management software maker topped quarterly sales estimates and provided an upbeat forecast for its newly launched AI integrated products. 

 

The company is banking on Agentforce to reenergize its growth, as tech firms look to tap into rising demand for AI agents that can autonomously complete tasks.

 

"F2026 (CY25) is shaping up to be an important transitional year as CRM lays the groundwork to bring AI agents to the enterprise masses with new pricing and packaging offerings(Agentforce, Foundations, Data Cloud, etc.)," said analysts at Piper Sandler. 

 

On a post-earnings call, executives said even though Agentforce was made generally available in late October, it delivered 200 deals. They also projected a strong pipeline of deals. 

 

"We remain very bullish on Agentforce even despite the long road to monetization and believe we have presented the broadest and deepest possible array of proprietary Agentforce work," J.P. Morgan analysts said.

 

Salesforce is set to add more than $40 billion to its market valuation of $316.85 billion if gains hold. At least 20 analysts raised their price targets on the stock, according to LSEG data. 

 

The stock has gained about 26% this year through the last close and the new median price target of $380 represents an about 15% upside. 

 

The company now expects fiscal year 2025 revenue between $37.8 billion and $38 billion, compared with its prior forecast range of $37.7 billion to $38 billion.

 

Third-quarter revenue rose 8% to $9.44 billion, beating the average analyst estimate of $9.35 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.

 

"We like the setup heading into FY’26 given reasonable Street expectations, positive progress made around the company’s AI strategy, and potential upside as front-office spending comes back," Baird Equity Research analysts said. 

 

(Reporting by Harshita Mary Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)