Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE: CRM) finished Wednesday’s session on a firm footing, then eased slightly lower in after-hours trading as investors digested a wave of AI‑focused product news, fresh customer wins, and a macro backdrop dominated by a U.S. Federal Reserve rate cut.
On December 10, 2025, Salesforce shares:
- Closed regular trading at $264.20, up about 1.2% on the day, after trading between $259.15 and $265.93 with volume of roughly 8.8 million shares. [1]
- Slipped to $262.18 after hours, about 0.8% below the close, in a range of $262.00–$265.09. [2]
Even after a sharp rebound following its early‑December earnings beat, Salesforce stock is still around 20% lower year‑to‑date and roughly 28% below its December 2024 high near $362, so the latest rally is happening against a backdrop of a tough 2025 for the name. [3]
Below is a structured rundown of what moved Salesforce on December 10, and the key signals to keep in mind before the market opens on December 11, 2025.
Key takeaways at a glance
- Price action: CRM extended its post‑earnings climb on Dec. 10 but gave back about 0.8% after hours, hovering near the $260–$265 band that has become a short‑term battleground. [4]
- Fundamentals: Q3 FY26 results showed ~9% revenue growth, a 35.5% non‑GAAP operating margin, and raised full‑year guidance, with AI platform Agentforce and Data 360 ARR up 114% year on year. [5]
- AI momentum: On Dec. 10, Salesforce announced new Agentforce 360 partner capabilities, a DeVry University deployment, and expanded Agentforce Commerce / Revenue Management features via partner Saltbox Mgmt. [6]
- Street view: Consensus remains “Moderate Buy”, with a $326–$327 average 12‑month price target, roughly 24% upside from current levels, and 2027 revenue projected around $45.9 billion. [7]
- Positioning: Options flow on Dec. 10 skewed modestly bearish, while data show heavy insider selling but sizeable institutional buying in recent months. [8]
- Macro backdrop: The Fed’s third straight rate cut (to 3.5%–3.75%) helped push major indexes higher, offering a friendlier environment for long‑duration growth names like CRM. [9]
Let’s unpack that.
1. How Salesforce traded on December 10 – regular session and after hours
Regular session
According to StockAnalysis data, Salesforce closed at $264.20 on Dec. 10, up 1.22% on the day. Intraday, the stock: [10]
- Opened around $260.75
- Reached a high near $265.93
- Briefly dipped to a low of $259.15
- Traded about 8.8 million shares
That move extended the stock’s post‑earnings rebound. After its early‑December report, CRM has climbed roughly 11–13%, depending on the reference point, as investors reassessed the AI narrative and stronger‑than‑expected cash generation. [11]
This happened on a day when U.S. indexes rallied after the Federal Reserve delivered a widely expected 25‑basis‑point cut, with the S&P 500, Dow, and Nasdaq all ending higher. [12]
After-hours session
In extended trading, data from Public.com show: [13]
- After‑hours price:$262.18 (as of 8:00 p.m. ET)
- Change vs close:–$2.02 (–0.76%) vs the regular close of $264.20
- After‑hours range:$262.00–$265.09
That mild pullback suggests:
- Some profit‑taking after an ~12% week‑over‑week run
- A market still digesting AI news and Fed policy, rather than reacting to a single new shock
Heading into the Dec. 11 open, the $260–$265 zone is the immediate technical area to watch: hold it, and bulls can argue for consolidation; lose it on volume, and the narrative tilts toward “post‑earnings hangover.”
2. The Q3 FY26 backdrop: strong numbers, AI‑driven story
Salesforce’s recent price action is still anchored in the Q3 FY26 results reported on December 3.
Headline numbers
Across multiple sources (Salesforce’s own release, analyst notes, and news coverage), the quarter looked like this: [14]
- Revenue: about $10.26–$10.3 billion, up 8.6–9% year over year
- Subscription & support revenue:$9.7 billion, up 10%
- Professional services & other: around $0.5 billion, down about 6%
- Non‑GAAP EPS:$3.25, well above $2.86 expected and up from $2.41 a year ago
- Non‑GAAP operating margin:35.5%, up from around 33.1%
- Operating cash flow:$2.3 billion, up 17%
- Free cash flow:$2.2 billion, up 22%
Salesforce also highlighted current remaining performance obligations (cRPO) of $29.4 billion, up 11% year on year, calling it “a powerful pipeline of future revenue.” [15]
Guidance: raised, but not explosive
Management raised full‑year FY26 guidance to: [16]
- Revenue:$41.45–$41.55 billion (around 9–10% growth)
- Full‑year non‑GAAP EPS:$11.75–$11.77
- Q4 revenue:$11.13–$11.23 billion, above prior Street estimates near $10.9B [17]
Part of that top‑line lift comes from the Informatica acquisition, which is expected to contribute roughly 80 basis points to FY26 subscription & support growth. [18]
AI & Agentforce: the star of the show
The real juice in the quarter was the AI story:
- Agentforce + Data 360 ARR: nearly $1.4 billion, up 114% year over year
- Agentforce ARR alone: surpassed $0.5 billion, up about 330% year over year
- Agentforce deals: more than 18,500 total, including 9,500+ paid deals, with paid transactions up 50% quarter over quarter
- Accounts in production: up 70% quarter over quarter
- About half of Agentforce/Data 360 Q3 bookings came from existing customers expanding usage. [19]
Analysts from firms like Bank of America and Jefferies flagged these metrics as evidence that Salesforce’s AI platform is starting to drive real bookings, even if AI revenue is still relatively small versus the overall business. Bank of America, for example, kept a Buy rating and a $305 price target, arguing that Agentforce could materially boost growth by FY27, while Jefferies noted that CRM trades at a meaningful discount to peers on 2027 free‑cash‑flow multiples despite the AI traction. [20]
Not everyone is totally convinced, though. BMO Capital Markets has described Salesforce as a “show‑me” story until AI momentum shows up more visibly in aggregate revenue growth, underscoring why the market reaction has been positive but not euphoric. [21]
3. Fresh December 10 news: Agentforce ecosystem gets louder
December 10 wasn’t an earnings day, but it was busy on the product and ecosystem front—important context for assessing whether CRM’s AI narrative keeps earning its multiple.
DeVry University goes “agentic” with Agentforce 360
Salesforce’s newsroom announced that DeVry University is rolling out Agentforce 360 plus Data 360 to support more than 32,000 learners. [22]
Key points from the release:
- DeVry is using Agentforce 360 to provide instant, 24/7 support across admissions, financial aid, and student services.
- The deployment replaces a legacy chatbot and streamlines manual processes, with Salesforce emphasizing that DeVry is moving toward a fully “Agentic Enterprise” approach. [23]
For investors, this is another concrete example that Agentforce isn’t just a slide‑deck concept; it’s being deployed in real, high‑touch environments like education.
Salesforce opens Agentforce 360 to partners
In a separate article, Salesforce announced the largest expansion of its platform for ISV partners since Force.com 18 years ago, opening Agentforce 360 as a foundation for partner‑built, AI‑native applications. [24]
Highlights:
- For the first time, partners can embed the full Agentforce 360 stack (including Data 360, sector‑specific Agentforce offerings, Trusted Services, and Salesforce Foundations) into their own products.
- Partners get access to flexible pricing models (seat‑based, usage‑based, and consumption‑based via Flex Credits), plus automated provisioning and billing via a new Salesforce Partner Marketplace.
- Salesforce pitches this as paving the way for a new generation of AI‑native companies built directly on its platform, echoing the significance of AppExchange’s launch years ago.
This matters because it potentially amplifies Agentforce’s TAM (total addressable market): instead of just selling AI to end customers, Salesforce can monetize platform usage by an ecosystem of partners—a model that’s worked well historically for both Salesforce and other big platforms.
Saltbox Mgmt deepens Agentforce Commerce & Revenue Management
Another Dec. 10 release from Saltbox Mgmt highlighted “Commerce by Contract”, a new set of capabilities built on Agentforce Commerce and Agentforce Revenue Management: [25]
- Buyers can manage multiple carts by project or job site, share carts across users, and accept quotes directly into new carts.
- Contract terms govern what buyers can see and buy—contracted items are checkout‑ready, while non‑contracted items are view‑only with integrated quote requests.
- Every cart is auto‑linked to a valid contract to enforce compliance at scale.
For anyone trying to gauge commercial use cases for Agentforce, these kinds of B2B commerce features show how Salesforce is pushing AI into transactional, revenue‑adjacent workflows, not just support chatbots.
Agentforce World Tour New York
Salesforce also held Agentforce World Tour New York at the North Javits Center on December 10, positioning it as a showcase for Agentforce 360 solutions across industries. [26]
That’s more of a marketing event than a direct financial catalyst, but it reinforces the theme: Salesforce is repositioning itself as an “agentic AI” platform company, not just a CRM vendor.
4. Analyst forecasts and valuation: what the Street sees from here
Consensus rating and price targets
MarketBeat’s latest compilation of 42 analyst ratings shows: [27]
- Consensus rating:Moderate Buy
- 28 Buy ratings
- 13 Hold
- 1 Sell
- Average 12‑month target:$326.46
- High target: $430
- Low target: $221
- Implied upside vs ~$264: about 24%
Simply Wall St, looking at 51 analysts, reports a very similar picture: [28]
- Revenue forecast for 2027:US$45.9 billion, roughly 14% above the last twelve months
- EPS forecast for 2027:US$8.31, about 7.8% higher than current levels
- Consensus price target around US$327, with a range of roughly US$223–US$415
Interestingly, that site notes that analysts nudged revenue estimates up after Q3 but left the price target essentially unchanged, implying that the Street wants more proof that higher revenue will translate into proportionally higher earnings.
Recent target tweaks and commentary
Within the last couple of weeks:
- Wedbush downgraded its rating (still positive overall) but kept a high target in the mid‑$300s.
- DA Davidson sits at Neutral with a $235 target, on the cautious side.
- Needham remains bullish with a $400 target, while Macquarie is Neutral at $265 and Barclays stays Overweight at $330. [29]
- Bank of America’s target of $305 and commentary emphasize that AI‑driven acceleration is more of a FY27 story than something that instantly transforms FY26 revenue. [30]
Where Salesforce sits vs AI peers
There’s also a quieter, more skeptical thread running through recent coverage. A KeyBanc survey of CIOs, summarized in a Barron’s piece, suggested that: [31]
- Microsoft remains the most widely adopted AI partner.
- Only a small minority of CIOs currently use Salesforce’s Agentforce, and just a limited portion say they’re willing to pay significant premiums for AI features from their CRM vendor.
- Salesforce still commands a large share of CRM workloads, but monetizing AI on top of that base is not guaranteed.
Put together, the analyst consensus says:
- Core business: solid, high‑single‑digit revenue growth with strong margins and cash flow.
- AI opportunity: real and increasingly visible in bookings and ARR, but still early in revenue recognition.
- Valuation: stock trades below historical and peer multiples, but the discount reflects execution risk on AI and acquisitions (notably Informatica).
5. Options, insiders, and institutions: how the big money is positioned
Options flow on December 10: mildly bearish skew
Benzinga’s “Unusual Options Activity” report for Salesforce on December 10 flagged 27 large options trades: [32]
- 55% of the flows were classified as bearish, 33% bullish (the remainder neutral).
- There were 12 big put trades worth about $929,000 in premium and 15 large call trades worth roughly $802,000.
- Most “whales” were targeting strikes in the $200–$300 range out several months, suggesting a mix of hedging and directional bets rather than a simple, near‑term crash trade.
- At the time of that report, CRM was trading around $261–$262, with RSI near overbought territory, reinforcing the idea that some investors were hedging into strength.
This doesn’t scream panic, but it does say: expect volatility, especially if the stock starts to slip below the mid‑$260s.
Insider activity: lots of selling
QuiverQuant’s dashboard paints a clear picture of insider behaviour over the past six months: [33]
- 494 open‑market insider trades in the last six months
- 2 purchases
- 492 sales
- Marc Benioff (Chair & CEO):
- 0 purchases, 470+ sales, offloading about 195,000–196,000 shares for an estimated $49 million
- Additional reported sale on Sept. 26 of 2,250 shares worth about $546,000, executed under a trading plan
- Other senior leaders, including Parker Harris and Srini Tallapragada, have also been net sellers.
Heavy insider selling is not unusual for a mature, high‑comp stock company, especially after a big multi‑year run, but it does temper the bull case and is something short‑term traders will keep in mind.
Institutional flows: mixed but with notable buyers
On the institutional side, the picture is more balanced: [34]
- QuiverQuant data show over 1,400 funds adding CRM and a similar number trimming positions in recent quarters.
- Recent fund‑specific disclosures include:
- TS2, summarizing QuiverQuant’s broader data, also points to major institutions such as Capital International Investors and others increasing positions, even as big holders like Capital Research Global Investors and JPMorgan have taken profits. TechStock²+2Quiver Quantitative+2
The shorthand: management is cashing out, but professional money managers are far from abandoning the name—they’re rotating, rebalancing, and in some cases adding on weakness.
6. Macro backdrop: Fed’s “hawkish cut” and what it means for CRM
While Salesforce‑specific news dominated the micro narrative, the macro driver on Dec. 10 was the Federal Reserve:
- The Fed cut its policy rate by 25 basis points to a 3.5%–3.75% range, marking its third consecutive cut. [37]
- The move came with a hawkish tone: projections showed only one additional cut expected in 2026, and there were three dissents on the committee. [38]
- The Fed also issued an implementation note lowering interest on reserve balances and signaled technical Treasury‑bill purchases to support liquidity. [39]
- Equities rallied after the announcement, with indexes closing higher as investors welcomed easier policy, even if the easing path looks limited. [40]
For Salesforce, lower rates:
- Support the present value of long‑duration cash flows (good for high‑multiple software).
- Help sentiment across growth and AI‑linked names.
- But the Fed’s hesitance to cut aggressively means markets won’t simply levitate forever—earnings and execution still matter.
7. What to watch before the market opens on December 11, 2025
Putting all the pieces together, here are the key things Salesforce watchers should focus on as the next session approaches.
1. Can CRM defend the $260–$265 zone?
- The stock closed at $264.20 and traded near $262 after hours. [41]
- That range coincides with:
- The post‑earnings consolidation area, and
- A level where options open interest clusters around $260–$280 strikes. [42]
A firm open above $260 with decent volume would suggest the market is comfortable with the new AI narrative and Fed backdrop. A sharp drop below $260 could signal that the fast money has decided the recent pop was enough—for now.
2. Follow‑through on Agentforce news
- Investors will be watching whether the DeVry University deployment, the Agentforce 360 partner opening, and Saltbox’s contract‑aware commerce features get more pickup in mainstream and analyst coverage. [43]
- Additional customer case studies or partner wins over the next few days would reinforce the idea that Agentforce is not just hype but a platform with growing real‑world usage.
3. Analyst notes and media framing
- Expect more post‑Fed macro notes that may tweak sector weightings, and potentially follow‑up research on Salesforce as a large‑cap software name with AI exposure. [44]
- Keep an eye out for further discussion of things like:
- Informatica integration risk
- The timeline for AI revenue becoming material to overall growth
- How Salesforce’s AI adoption compares with Microsoft and other cloud peers [45]
4. Options and volatility
- After December 10’s bearish‑tilted options flows, any larger move at the open could be amplified by delta‑hedging as market makers adjust. [46]
- Watch the $260 and $280 strikes in particular; those are the levels where big traders have been concentrating their bets.
5. Sentiment vs. quant forecasts
- Short‑term technical models like CoinCodex currently rate CRM as “bullish” based on momentum (18 green days in the past month), yet they project a move down toward the low‑$220s over the next 30 days, implying a potential 13–14% pullback from current levels. [47]
- That tension—bullish recent price action vs. mean‑reversion forecasts—is a good reminder that chasing an extended move always carries risk, especially when insiders have been heavy sellers.
Final thought (and a quick disclaimer)
Salesforce heads into the December 11 open with:
- A solid fundamental story,
- A high‑energy AI platform narrative centered on Agentforce,
- A decent valuation case vs. peers,
- And a macro wind at its back after the Fed’s latest cut.
Against that, investors are weighing:
- Slower growth in some legacy clouds,
- Integration and execution risk around Informatica and AI monetization,
- Heavy insider selling,
- And the possibility that the recent bounce has already priced in a lot of the good news.
References
1. stockanalysis.com, 2. public.com, 3. stockstory.org, 4. stockanalysis.com, 5. www.salesforce.com, 6. www.salesforce.com, 7. www.marketbeat.com, 8. www.benzinga.com, 9. www.investopedia.com, 10. stockanalysis.com, 11. simplywall.st, 12. www.investopedia.com, 13. public.com, 14. www.salesforce.com, 15. www.salesforce.com, 16. www.salesforce.com, 17. www.proactiveinvestors.com, 18. www.ainvest.com, 19. investor.salesforce.com, 20. www.proactiveinvestors.com, 21. www.investing.com, 22. www.salesforce.com, 23. www.barchart.com, 24. www.salesforce.com, 25. www.prnewswire.com, 26. www.salesforce.com, 27. www.marketbeat.com, 28. simplywall.st, 29. www.benzinga.com, 30. www.quiverquant.com, 31. www.barrons.com, 32. www.benzinga.com, 33. www.quiverquant.com, 34. www.quiverquant.com, 35. www.quiverquant.com, 36. www.quiverquant.com, 37. www.investopedia.com, 38. www.reuters.com, 39. www.federalreserve.gov, 40. www.tradingview.com, 41. stockanalysis.com, 42. www.benzinga.com, 43. www.salesforce.com, 44. www.proactiveinvestors.com, 45. www.barrons.com, 46. www.benzinga.com, 47. coincodex.com
