CRM
Another analyst, another thumbs-up
Salesforce is back in the spotlight after TD Cowen’s Derrick Wood reiterated a Buy rating and raised his price target to $300 from $280. That’s not exactly a “party’s over” note — it’s more like the analyst version of saying, “Yep, this thing still looks good, but the elevator may already be halfway up.”
Why CRM has been ripping
The stock has already climbed roughly 40% from its August lows, powered by a strong late-August quarter, a bigger guidance raise, and investors getting increasingly allergic to the idea that AI only belongs in slide decks. Salesforce said revenue hit $11.35 billion, up 11% year over year, and lifted its full-year revenue outlook to $41.1 billion to $41.3 billion while nudging its non-GAAP operating margin target to 34%.
The other big piece of the story is Salesforce’s expanded partnership with Anthropic. The companies are rolling out “Claudeforce,” which plugs Claude’s reasoning models into Salesforce workflows, Agentforce, and Slack. Translation: Salesforce is trying to turn AI from a shiny demo into an actual business tool that can help with pipeline analysis, meeting prep, and deal management.
Investor takeaway
For shareholders, this is a classic two-track setup:
- the fundamentals are improving
- the valuation and momentum are getting stretched
CRM is also trading near 52-week highs, so even bulls have to admit the easy money may be gone. But as long as earnings keep beating, guidance keeps rising, and AI keeps showing up in real products instead of marketing copy, traders may keep giving Salesforce the benefit of the doubt.
Big picture: Salesforce is looking less like a sleepy enterprise software name and more like an AI platform story with receipts — and Wall Street is still willing to pay up for that plot twist.