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Salesforce Shares Plunge to Year Low as AI Deals Fail to Calm Investors

The selloff signals investor doubt that the company’s AI agent strategy will quickly restore revenue growth or justify heavy cash use.

Overview

  • The stock has tumbled about 43% year-to-date and traded near a 52-week low after a record 13-session losing streak that extended through late June, reflecting sharply weaker market sentiment.
  • Investors have pinned the selloff on worries that AI coding agents could let customers build their own tooling and bypass platforms like Salesforce’s Agentforce, a dynamic some coverage calls the “SaaSpocalypse.”
  • Salesforce moved to respond in mid-June with a $3.6 billion all-cash purchase of AI customer-support firm Fin and an expanded Databricks partnership to speed deployment of agent and data capabilities, but those steps did not stop the share decline.
  • The company’s latest quarter showed an adjusted EPS beat and revenue growth while the fiscal-year revenue midpoint landed slightly below Street expectations, and prior large buybacks of about $27 billion have raised questions about cash flexibility as M&A continues.
  • Wall Street remains largely positive on the stock with a FactSet consensus target well above current levels and fresh upgrades such as Monness Crespi’s to Buy, leaving the near-term outlook dependent on customer adoption and monetization of agent products.