New York, Jan 5, 2026, 21:06 EST — Market closed
- Salesforce shares rose about 1% on Monday, snapping a three-day losing streak.
- RBC Capital lifted its Salesforce price target to $290, citing more visible enterprise AI demand in 2026.
- Investors are bracing for Friday’s U.S. jobs report and looking ahead to Salesforce’s next earnings window.
Salesforce shares rose 1.1% to $256.26 on Monday, snapping a three-session slide. The customer-relationship-management software maker is still about 30% below its 52-week high and traded lighter-than-average volume, according to MarketWatch data.
The move comes as Wall Street tries to pin down which large-cap software names can turn “AI agents” — software that can take actions on a user’s behalf — into billable growth. RBC Capital Markets analyst Rishi Jaluria raised his price target on Salesforce to $290 from $250 and kept a Sector Perform rating, roughly a hold call. TipRanks
“2026 is likely to be a year when AI tailwinds become more evident” for companies positioned for enterprise adoption, Jaluria wrote. He said enterprise spending looked steadier in pockets even as management teams stayed conservative in early-2026 outlooks. TipRanks
Salesforce’s gains tracked a broader risk-on session that pushed the Dow to a record close, helped by strength in energy and financials after a U.S. operation in Venezuela, Reuters reported. The rally left investors toggling between geopolitics, growth stocks and the next round of U.S. data.
Within mega-cap tech, Salesforce outperformed Microsoft on the day and edged Alphabet’s two share classes, MarketWatch data showed. In enterprise software, ServiceNow was up slightly while Oracle fell, underscoring the uneven tone in the group.
The next company-specific scoreboard remains bookings and backlog. In December, Salesforce raised full-year fiscal 2026 revenue guidance to $41.45 billion to $41.55 billion and flagged current remaining performance obligation (cRPO) — a key contracted backlog measure — of $29.4 billion, up 11%.
Investors also have a nearer-term calendar item: Salesforce is due to pay a quarterly cash dividend of $0.416 per share on Jan. 8, the company said.
Macro data may set the tone for the next session. The U.S. employment report for December is scheduled for Friday, Jan. 9 at 8:30 a.m. ET, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Technically, traders have focused on the $250 area after the stock’s recent pullback. MarketBeat data put Salesforce’s 50-day moving average near $249.78, with the 200-day near $251.55, while Monday’s range ran from $252.49 to $259.55.
But the setup carries a clear risk: if rate expectations reset higher after the jobs data, high-multiple software stocks can slide quickly, even without company news. And if AI features take longer to translate into incremental subscription demand, investors may push back on valuations and guidance.
The market’s next checkpoints are Thursday’s dividend payment and Friday’s jobs report, before attention turns to Salesforce’s next results, which Nasdaq data estimates around Feb. 25.
