Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE: CRM) is back in the spotlight after reporting record fiscal Q3 2026 results, raising its full‑year outlook, and drawing a wave of analyst and institutional attention. As of December 9, 2025, Salesforce stock is trading around $260 per share, recovering sharply from recent lows but still well below its 52‑week high. [1]
This article pulls together all the key news, forecasts and analyses available on December 9, 2025 to give you a current, Google‑News‑ready view of Salesforce’s stock story — from AI and Agentforce to price targets, insider trades, dividends and risks.
Salesforce stock price today: CRM trades around $260 after a sharp rebound
- Last trade (Dec 9, 2025): about $260.00 per share.
- Market cap: roughly $243 billion. [2]
- Valuation: trailing P/E ~34.6 and a price‑to‑earnings‑growth (PEG) ratio of about 2.0, signaling a growth stock that isn’t cheap on traditional metrics. [3]
- Volatility: beta around 1.25, meaning Salesforce tends to move more than the broader market. [4]
- Trend: 50‑day moving average near $243.55 and 200‑day around $252.27, so the current price is above both short‑ and long‑term trend lines. [5]
- 52‑week range: approximately $222 to $367, with the stock still far below its highs despite the recent bounce. [6]
After Q3 earnings, Salesforce shares rallied more than 10% over about a week, according to several market recaps, although research from Zacks and others notes the stock remained roughly 25–30% lower for 2025 year‑to‑date in early December, lagging a strong tech tape. [7]
Q3 FY26 earnings: revenue, margins and free cash flow all move higher
Salesforce’s fiscal Q3 2026 (quarter ended October 31, 2025) is the anchor for today’s move in CRM stock.
Headline numbers
From Salesforce’s own release and multiple independent summaries: [8]
- Revenue: about $10.26–$10.3 billion, up 9% year‑over‑year, roughly in line with expectations.
- Subscription & support revenue: about $9.7 billion, up 10%.
- Adjusted EPS:$3.25, beating the $2.86 consensus by a wide margin.
- Current remaining performance obligation (cRPO):$29.4 billion, up 11%.
- Total RPO: roughly $59.5 billion, up 12%, signaling a very large future revenue backlog.
- GAAP operating margin: about 21%;
- Non‑GAAP operating margin: about 35–36%, underscoring much higher profitability than just a few years ago.
- Operating cash flow: around $2.3 billion, up 17% YoY.
- Free cash flow (FCF): about $2.2 billion, up 22% YoY, with FCF running close to 95% of operating cash flow. [9]
Several outlets, including Investopedia and Reuters, highlighted that Salesforce beat earnings expectations, nudged revenue above forecasts, and responded by raising its fiscal 2026 guidance for both revenue and EPS. [10]
Upgraded guidance
Salesforce now expects for FY26 (year ending January 31, 2026): [11]
- Revenue:$41.45–$41.55 billion, implying 9–10% growth.
- Non‑GAAP operating margin: around 34.1%.
- Adjusted EPS:$11.75–$11.77.
- Operating cash flow growth: about 13–14% for the year.
For Q4 FY26, the company guided to:
- Revenue:$11.13–$11.23 billion (roughly 11–12% growth).
- Adjusted EPS:$3.02–$3.04.
- cRPO growth: about 15%. [12]
Put simply: Salesforce is no longer growing revenue at 20%+ per year, but it is growing high single‑digit to low double‑digit while dramatically expanding margins and cash generation.
AI, Agentforce and Data Cloud: the new Salesforce growth engine
The central narrative in almost every analysis on December 9 is Salesforce’s AI pivot — especially:
- Agentforce (AI agents for sales, service and automation), and
- Data 360 / Data Cloud (its unified data layer).
Explosive ARR growth
According to Salesforce and follow‑up analysis: [13]
- Agentforce + Data 360 annual recurring revenue (ARR) is now nearly $1.4 billion, up about 114% year‑over‑year.
- Agentforce ARR alone is estimated around $540 million, up roughly 330% YoY.
- Salesforce has closed over 18,500 Agentforce deals since launch, with more than 9,500 paid customers and paid deals up about 50% quarter‑over‑quarter.
- Agentforce has processed over 3.2 trillion tokens through Salesforce’s LLM gateway.
- In Q3, Data 360 ingested about 32 trillion records, up 119% YoY, with unstructured data volumes up nearly 4x.
Earlier in 2025, Salesforce reported that Data Cloud & AI ARR hit $900 million, growing roughly 120% YoY, and that Data Cloud surpassed 50 trillion records, serving as the “intelligent activation layer” for enterprise AI. [14]
Industry research from IDC estimates that Salesforce AI‑powered cloud solutions could enable about $948 billion in incremental customer revenues by 2028, underscoring the scale of the ecosystem built around these platforms. [15]
Customer reception: powerful but not friction‑free
User‑level reviews of Salesforce Einstein and related AI features highlight real gains in automation and productivity, but also point to complex pricing, integration work and the need for strong in‑house admins to get full value. [16]
A recent KeyBanc CIO survey, covered by Barron’s, adds nuance:
- Overall IT budgets are expected to grow 3.7% in 2026, with AI’s share of that spend rising from 3.2% to 4.7%.
- Microsoft is seen as the most strategic AI vendor; over 90% of respondents plan to increase spending with it.
- For Salesforce, willingness to pay extra for AI features in CRM fell from about 46% to 36%, and only about 7% of respondents report using Agentforce today — even as Salesforce was named the top CRM vendor by 45% of respondents, up from 35%. [17]
That mix of dominant CRM position plus slower monetization of AI is exactly what many analysts are wrestling with in their forecasts.
What Wall Street is saying: Salesforce stock forecasts and ratings (Dec 9, 2025)
Despite the stock’s shaky 2025, Wall Street’s overall stance on Salesforce remains constructive to bullish.
Consensus price targets
Different data aggregators show slightly different sample sizes, but they all cluster in a similar range:
- StockAnalysis:
- 35 analysts
- Consensus rating: “Buy”
- Average 12‑month target:$324.49
- Range:$221–$405
- Implied upside of about 25% from current levels. [18]
- MarketBeat forecast page:
- Around 42 analysts
- Average target: roughly $326–$327
- High:$430
- Low:$221
- Implied upside of about 25–26% from a reference price near $260. [19]
- GuruFocus analyst summary:
- 48 analysts
- Average target: about $323.66
- High:$442
- Low:$223
- Implied upside of roughly 25% from around $259. [20]
Taken together, the Street is effectively saying: “We see mid‑20% upside over the next year, but views on risk and valuation differ.”
Recent rating and target changes
Recent notes captured in analyst trackers show a wide spread of opinions: [21]
- Morgan Stanley (Keith Weiss): maintains a Buy, trimming target from $405 to $398, still implying over 50% upside.
- Truist Securities (Terry Tillman):Strong Buy, cutting target from $400 to $380, citing sector valuation headwinds rather than a Salesforce‑specific problem.
- Citigroup (Tyler Radke): shifted to a more cautious Hold, with a target close to the current price. A German market overview notes that Citi’s move reflects concerns about valuation and the pace of AI monetization. [22]
- DA Davidson (Gil Luria):Neutral/Hold, modestly raising the target from $225 to $235 after earnings. [23]
- Macquarie (Steve Koenig):Hold, nudging the target up to around $265, just above today’s trading range. [24]
Zacks, in its post‑earnings piece, emphasized the earnings beat, 10% revenue growth and raised FY26 outlook, but also pointed out that the stock had underperformed major tech benchmarks this year despite that operational strength. [25]
Separately, an Investopedia recap described the quarter as a “strong fiscal Q3 2026” with an EPS beat and AI‑driven products injecting “enthusiasm” back into the stock after a nearly 30% drop earlier in 2025. [26]
Big money moves: insider buying and institutional flows
ValueAct’s $25 million bet
One of the most talked‑about signals this week is a major insider purchase:
- G. Mason Morfit, a Salesforce director and key figure at activist investor ValueAct Capital, bought 96,000 shares of CRM on December 5, 2025 at an average price of $260.58, totaling about $25 million. [27]
- The Ad‑hoc market report notes this increases Morfit’s indirect holdings to nearly 3 million shares and frames the move as a strong vote of confidence in Salesforce’s AI‑driven strategy. [28]
For many investors, such a large insider purchase — especially from a board member associated with an influential activist — is a powerful “skin in the game” signal.
Major institutions accumulate Salesforce
Fresh 13F‑based reports on December 9 show that large institutions continue to build positions: [29]
- State Street Corp increased its holdings by 776,300 shares in Q2, bringing its stake to 49.26 million shares (about 5.15% of Salesforce), valued around $13.45 billion at the time of filing.
- Polish asset manager Investors Towarzystwo Funduszy Inwestycyjnych opened a new position of 15,638 shares, worth about $4.26 million, making Salesforce its 14th‑largest holding at roughly 1.7% of its portfolio.
- MarketBeat’s CRM news feed for December 8–9 lists a series of filings showing additional purchases by firms including Daiwa Securities Group, Axa S.A., Bank of Nova Scotia, Temasek Holdings and Jump Financial, alongside sales or trims by managers such as Vega Investment Solutions, Winslow Capital Management and Natixis. [30]
Broadly, that flow paints a picture of net institutional accumulation in 2025, even as the stock price has been volatile.
Other insider and political trades
- A MarketBeat note highlights U.S. Senator John Boozman reporting a small sale of Salesforce stock (between $1,001 and $15,000 worth) in mid‑November — modest compared with institutional flows and Morfit’s purchase. [31]
Overall, the signal from inside the company and large long‑term holders is positive, even while some professional money managers take profits or rebalance.
Dividend, buybacks and the “Dogs of the Dow” angle
Salesforce has fully embraced the shareholder‑returns era:
- The company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.416 per share in early December.
- The next ex‑dividend date is December 18, 2025, with the payment scheduled for January 8, 2026. [32]
- At today’s price, that works out to an annualized dividend of about $1.66–$1.70 per share and a yield around 0.6–0.7%, with a payout ratio near 22% — small but meaningful for a growth‑oriented software name. [33]
Meanwhile, the Q3 report shows Salesforce returned about $4.2 billion to shareholders in the quarter, including $3.8 billion in share repurchases and roughly $395 million in dividends, reducing the share count by around 1.3% over the quarter and year‑to‑date. [34]
Because of its entry into the Dow and new dividend, some commentators have labeled Salesforce one of the “Dogs of the Dow” for 2025, highlighting its combination of underperformance and yield. Articles from Barchart and DogsOfTheDow trackers point out that CRM’s stock has dropped considerably from its starting level while now offering a modest dividend, though not all analysts agree it fits the classic “value dog” profile given its still‑premium valuation. [35]
Bull case: why some see Salesforce as undervalued after Q3
Several December 9 commentaries argue that AI‑related fears created a buying opportunity in Salesforce.
Free cash flow and margin story
A widely shared Barchart analysis notes that in Q3: [36]
- Free cash flow rose 22% YoY, faster than revenue.
- FCF margins are exceptionally high, approaching 95% of operating cash flow.
- RPO growth (future contracted revenue) outpaced current revenue growth, suggesting an accelerating business pipeline.
- Ongoing buybacks and the new dividend are supported by this cash, leading the author to argue CRM shares could be 20–23% “too cheap” relative to their intrinsic value.
A pair of Seeking Alpha pieces published on December 9 take a similar line:
- One frames AI disruption fears as a “golden buying opportunity”, arguing that Salesforce’s focus on profitability, disciplined cost structure and growing AI revenue makes it an attractive long‑term compounder at current prices. [37]
- Another piece titled along the lines of “The Market Got Agentforce Wrong — And That’s Bullish” highlights the 330% ARR growth in Agentforce and strong booking trends as proof that the AI agent strategy is gaining traction faster than bears appreciate. [38]
A Finviz‑curated article characterizes Salesforce stock as “coiled like a spring”, pointing to strong fundamentals, heavy institutional buying and improving technicals as ingredients for a potential rebound from its depressed 2025 levels. [39]
Strategic position
On the strategic side, bulls point to: [40]
- Salesforce’s #1 share in core CRM, reaffirmed in multiple surveys.
- Deep integration between CRM, Data Cloud, AI agents and vertical solutions, which makes switching costs high.
- A long runway to upsell AI and automation into an enormous installed base.
- Structural tailwinds from the broader “Salesforce economy,” where partner and customer ecosystems are expected to generate hundreds of billions in new revenue fueled by Salesforce platforms.
For bullish analysts, the story is that the market is over‑focusing on near‑term AI competition and underpricing Salesforce’s ability to convert its installed base into AI revenue while maintaining high margins and cash returns.
Bear case: competitive pressure, AI monetization and valuation
Not everyone is convinced.
AI spending may favor others in the near term
The KeyBanc CIO survey, reported by Barron’s, emphasizes that Microsoft stands to capture a disproportionate share of AI budget growth in 2026, while Salesforce’s AI upsell is more mixed: [41]
- AI’s share of IT budgets is rising, but many CIOs prioritize cloud infrastructure and productivity suites first.
- Only just over a third of respondents are willing to pay extra for AI features in CRM, and usage of Salesforce’s Agentforce remains in single digits so far.
That leads to a key risk: Salesforce might remain the system of record for customer data, but incremental AI dollars could flow elsewhere if customers lean on lower‑friction tools from hyperscalers or more specialized vendors.
Growth deceleration and valuation worries
A number of neutral or cautious pieces raise these red flags: [42]
- Revenue growth has settled into the high single digits / low double digits, far from the 20–30% days that once supported Salesforce’s premium multiple.
- Even after the 2025 selloff, CRM trades at a mid‑30s earnings multiple and a PEG near 2, which some analysts view as full for a company growing under 10% organically. [43]
- A Finviz feature on “3 volatile stocks with warning signs” lists Salesforce, citing valuation risk, earnings volatility and competitive pressure as factors that could keep the stock choppy. [44]
- Citigroup’s downgrade to Hold underscores this skepticism, suggesting much of the anticipated AI upside may already be embedded in the share price. [45]
From a financial perspective, Salesforce’s own 10‑Q also shows continued restructuring costs (roughly $260 million in the first nine months of FY26) as it optimizes headcount and operations, and it notes that R&D, sales and marketing expenses will likely remain meaningful as the company invests aggressively in AI and Data Cloud. [46]
Salesforce stock outlook for 2026 and beyond
Putting it all together, here’s how the current (Dec 9, 2025) setup looks:
- Fundamentals:
- Solid 9–10% revenue growth,
- Rapid margin and free‑cash‑flow expansion,
- A very large backlog of committed revenue. [47]
- AI engine:
- Agentforce and Data 360 are posting triple‑digit ARR growth, but still represent a small portion of total revenue, meaning the AI story has room to run. [48]
- Market perception:
- The stock is down significantly from highs and has badly trailed mega‑cap AI leaders in 2025, yet remains valued as a high‑quality growth franchise rather than a bargain basement value stock. [49]
- External views:
- Ownership signals:
For long‑term‑oriented investors, the question isn’t whether Salesforce will still matter in enterprise software — it clearly will — but how much of its AI and data opportunity is already priced into CRM stock today.
Quick FAQ: Salesforce (CRM) stock on December 9, 2025
1. Is Salesforce stock a buy right now?
As of December 9, 2025, most Wall Street analysts rate Salesforce as a Buy, with average 12‑month price targets in the low‑to‑mid $320s, implying around 25% upside from roughly $260. [54]
However, some firms — including Citigroup and several others — have moved to Hold with targets near the current price, arguing that slowing growth and intense AI competition warrant caution. [55]
Whether Salesforce is a buy for you depends on your risk tolerance, time horizon and overall portfolio. This article is for information only and is not personal investment advice.
2. What is the current Salesforce stock forecast for 2026?
Analyst aggregate data suggests: [56]
- Revenue of about $41–42 billion in FY26 and mid‑single‑digit to high‑single‑digit growth beyond that.
- EPS expanding faster than revenue, with adjusted EPS expected around the mid‑$11s this year and rising further next year.
- AI and Data Cloud are expected to be a growing share of revenue and bookings, but not the majority of Salesforce’s business in the near term.
3. When is Salesforce’s next dividend?
Salesforce’s next ex‑dividend date is December 18, 2025, and the company plans to pay a $0.416 per‑share quarterly dividend on January 8, 2026. [57]
At current prices, the dividend yield is just under 1%, complemented by an active share buyback program.
4. What are the biggest risks to Salesforce stock?
Key risks called out in current research include: [58]
- AI competition from hyperscalers and other software vendors potentially capturing AI budgets.
- Valuation risk, with a premium multiple relative to its now‑moderate growth rate.
- Execution risk around integrating acquisitions like Informatica and scaling complex AI deployments. [59]
- Ongoing restructuring and cost‑cutting efforts, which could impact employee morale and innovation if not managed carefully.
If you’re tracking Salesforce for investment or professional reasons, the picture as of December 9, 2025 is clear:
- The business is healthy and increasingly profitable,
- AI and Data Cloud are starting to show real scale,
- Sentiment is split between valuation skeptics and AI optimists, and
- Big insiders and institutions are leaning in, not out.
References
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