What Happened?
Shares of CRM software giant Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) jumped 4.1% in the pre-market session after BofA Securities double-upgraded the stock to Buy from Underperform and raised its price target to $285 from $160.
BofA Securities analyst Tal Liani lifted his price target by 78%, citing discussions with enterprise chief information officers who indicated that displacing core platforms housing business logic, workflows, and compliance data remains highly unlikely, per research covered by Investing.com.
In a note also carried by StreetInsider, Liani reversed his prior view that artificial intelligence would disintermediate software seats, concluding that agentic tools will instead deepen customer lock-in and expand enterprise spending. BofA raised its valuation multiple to 16 times calendar year 2027 enterprise value to free cash flow from 9 times, supported by over $15 billion in trailing levered free cash flow and Agentforce annual recurring revenue exceeding $1.5 billion.
After the initial pop, the shares cooled down to $235.03, up 2.6% from the previous close.
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What Is The Market Telling Us
Salesforce’s shares are somewhat volatile and have had 14 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful but not something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.
The biggest move we wrote about over the last year was about 2 months ago when the stock gained 18.9% on the news that the company reported second-quarter financial results that exceeded expectations and raised its full-year earnings guidance, buoyed by rapid growth in its artificial intelligence business.
Salesforce is down 7.3% since the beginning of the year, and at $235.03 per share, it is trading 11.7% below its 52-week high of $266.23 from December 2025. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Salesforce’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at only $842.51.
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