Salesforce: BofA says channel checks are positive

Published 18/02/2025, 19:38
© Reuters

Investing.com -- Bank of America reiterated its Buy rating on Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) with a $440 price target in a note Tuesday, citing solid deal activity and a growing pipeline for Agentforce.

Following discussions with nearly a dozen key Salesforce system integrator partners, BofA analysts noted “healthy deal activity and generally improving tone” across the company’s core businesses. 

They highlighted “stable Sales and Service Cloud deal activity with added pull-through from Agentforce pilots”, as well as new use cases for Agentforce, including call summarization and semantic search. 

Additionally, data cloud deals remain strong, supporting Agentforce data preparation, while Mulesoft activity has picked up. However, the firm observed a “still mixed tone on Tableau and Slack”.

BofA sees potential for 1% upside to its Q4 current remaining performance obligation (cRPO) growth estimate of 9.4% in constant currency, based on improving deal momentum. 

The firm expects Salesforce management to guide FY26 revenue growth between 9% and 10%, in line with Q4 cRPO guidance. However, BofA is lowering its FY26 margin expansion forecast from 150 basis points to 100 basis points, citing incremental investment in Agentforce, which added 1,000 sales reps in November 2024.

Despite the 22% rise in Salesforce shares since Agentforce’s launch in mid-September, BofA noted that the stock is still down 2% year-to-date due to investor concerns over the broader applications spending environment. 

The firm does not expect Salesforce’s FY26 outlook to be a major catalyst for the stock, citing a potentially conservative approach under its new CFO and limited near-term contribution from Agentforce.

Still, BofA emphasized that CRM remains a top pick, with Salesforce positioned as “a top reacceleration story this year.” The company is expected to return to 12% to 13% growth exiting FY26, benefiting from a better software spending environment and Agentforce’s expanding role.

 

Latest comments

Risk Disclosure: Trading in financial instruments and/or cryptocurrencies involves high risks including the risk of losing some, or all, of your investment amount, and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices of cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile and may be affected by external factors such as financial, regulatory or political events. Trading on margin increases the financial risks.
Before deciding to trade in financial instrument or cryptocurrencies you should be fully informed of the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite, and seek professional advice where needed.
Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. The data and prices on the website are not necessarily provided by any market or exchange, but may be provided by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual price at any given market, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Fusion Media and any provider of the data contained in this website will not accept liability for any loss or damage as a result of your trading, or your reliance on the information contained within this website.
It is prohibited to use, store, reproduce, display, modify, transmit or distribute the data contained in this website without the explicit prior written permission of Fusion Media and/or the data provider. All intellectual property rights are reserved by the providers and/or the exchange providing the data contained in this website.
Fusion Media may be compensated by the advertisers that appear on the website, based on your interaction with the advertisements or advertisers
© 2007-2025 - Fusion Media Limited. All Rights Reserved.