Shares of Salesforce () rose 1.94% ahead of the company’s first-quarter earnings report on Wednesday after the market. Wall Street expects adjusted earnings per share of about $3.11 to $3.13 for the quarter, up from $2.58 a year earlier. Revenue is projected at roughly $11.05 billion to $11.1 billion, representing about 12% year-over-year growth.
Key highlights:
- Investors are looking for signs that the software giant can stabilize growth and address mounting concerns about how artificial intelligence could reshape the enterprise software industry. The real focus is whether organic revenue can reaccelerate in the second half of the year as Agentforce adoption scales and drives a halo effect across the product portfolio.
- Analysts are looking for net new annualized order value growth as evidence that double-digit revenue expansion could return potentially as early as fiscal 2028 while noting that AI-generated revenue currently represents roughly 2% of total sales.
- The stock has plunged about 34% over the past year while the climbed roughly 29%, highlighting investor skepticism toward traditional software models amid disruption from AI-powered tools and automation.
- Agentforce reached $800 million in annual recurring revenue in Q4, up 169% year-over-year, with more than 29,000 agreements finalized since launch. Market participants will scrutinize Agentforce transaction volume and ARR growth patterns for signs of sustained momentum.
- Salesforce built much of its business selling per-user CRM software, a model analysts say delivers roughly 75% gross margins. But the rapid rise of AI agents that automate workflows and generate custom solutions has stoked concerns that companies may increasingly move away from traditional enterprise software subscriptions. Those worries were amplified this month when Palantir said it had replaced its own CRM with a custom-built system.
- The company is countering those worries by expanding its AI offerings under the Agentforce brand, which shifts pricing from per-user fees to consumption-based billing. The company has tweaked Agentforce pricing multiple times as it seeks a sustainable monetization approach.
- Despite the transition and broader industry concerns, Salesforce has shown early signs of traction with its AI products.
- In an earnings preview note BTIG told investors this quarter is unlikely to materially bolster confidence in the company’s promised second-half growth acceleration.
Analysts Expectation:
- Jefferies reiterated a Buy rating on Salesforce (CRM) and maintained a $250 price target.
- TD Cowen reiterated its Buy rating on Salesforce (CRM) and kept a $250 price target.
- A UBS analyst kept Salesforce Inc. (NYSE: CRM) at Neutral and lowered the price target to $185 from $200.
CRM Q1 2026 earnings after market
Analyst Ratings
SOURCE
BUY
HOLD
SELL
LSEG
38
12
2
TipRanks
17
6
1
Earnings Expectation
EPS
3.13 USD
Revenue
11.05 B USD
Expected Move by option expiration:
Technical Analysis Perspective:
- CRM began a downtrend after peaking at an all-time high of 369 in Dec 2024.
- A failed second attempt to retake that high initiated a longer-term decline.
- A falling trendline from the Dec ’24 peak intersects the 223–230 area.
- Immediate support sits around 170–165 this week.
- Base case: CRM clears 185 after earnings and heads toward 200–205.
- Alternate case: Rejection at 185 leads to a pullback to 170–165.
Weekly Candlestick Chart
CRM Seasonality Chart:
Since 2007, CRM has finished May up an average of 1.48% in 65% of years, while June has averaged a 0.22% decline, occurring in 47% of years.
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Ali Merchant is a seasoned financial market professional with expertise in Technical Analysis, Treasury & Capital Markets, Trading, Sales, Research, Training, & Fund Management. He is the founder of www.twtlearning.com providing financial education, research and advisory services to fund & hedge fund managers and family offices.
He has been trading FX, FX options, US stocks & options, Indices, Commodities & Oil, and Metals Futures. He has a CMT charter, an AAPTA membership, and a CMT Canada membership. He has worked in various roles and organizations in North America and the GCC, such as ABN Amro bank, Thomson Reuters, Refinitiv, MAK Allen & Day Capital Partners, and Bridge Information Systems.
He is regarded as an excellent mentor and has trained more than 2000+ users in North America, Gulf countries & Asia on financial markets & products, active and passive trading, and technical analysis strategies. He emanated technical analysis daily and weekly reports for BridgeNews Chicago bureau and updated technical analysis reports on Bloomberg and Reuters while working with ABN Amro bank treasury & capital markets. Has moderated and produced technical analysis reports for Thomson Reuters (Refinitiv) users’ chat rooms and trained users on technical analysis techniques and models. Conducted TA & Global Markets outlook workshop with central banks, sovereign funds, global & regional banks & family offices.
