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Salesforce Stock Gains 34% in a Month: Time to Hold or Book Profits?

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Key Takeaways

  • Salesforce surged 34% in a month as Q2'27 results pointed to stabilizing double-digit revenue growth.
  • Agentforce ARR topped $1.5 billion, rising more than 240% YoY as customer usage expanded rapidly.
  • CRM trades at 16.30 times forward earnings, below the sector average and major software competitors.

Salesforce, Inc. (CRM - Free Report) has staged a strong comeback after a weak first half of 2026. Shares have rallied 34% over the past month, far ahead of the broader Zacks Internet – Software industry’s 1.6% gain.

CRM has also outperformed several large enterprise software competitors, including Microsoft Corporation (MSFT - Free Report) , SAP SE (SAP - Free Report) and Oracle Corporation (ORCL - Free Report) . While Microsoft has declined 1.3% over the past month, shares of SAP and Oracle have appreciated 3.2% and 5.6%, respectively.

Salesforce One-Month Price Return Performance

Zacks Investment Research
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

The sharp rally naturally raises an important question for investors: After such a big move, is it time to book profits or continue holding Salesforce stock?

The latest earnings suggest that holding the stock makes more sense for now.

Salesforce’s Growth Story Is Starting to Stabilize

Salesforce’s recent rally was driven largely by its second-quarter fiscal 2027 results, reported on Aug. 26. Since Aug. 26, CRM stock has gained 26%.

The company generated $11.35 billion in revenues, up 10.8% year over year, while subscription and support revenues rose 11.7% to $10.82 billion. Current remaining performance obligation (cRPO), a key indicator of future revenues, reached $33.5 billion, up 14% year over year.

This matters because slowing revenue growth has been one of the biggest concerns surrounding Salesforce. As the company has become much larger, maintaining the rapid growth rates of its earlier years has become increasingly difficult.

The latest quarterly numbers, however, point to a more balanced picture. During the earnings call, management stated that strong bookings, near-record-low customer attrition and stronger net new annual order value are supporting a potential second-half organic revenue reacceleration. Contract lengths for both new deals and renewals are also increasing across segments.

For the third quarter of fiscal 2027, Salesforce expects revenues of $11.42-$11.50 billion, implying 11%-12% year-over-year growth. The company also raised its fiscal 2027 revenue guidance from $45.90-$46.20 billion to $46.10-$46.40 billion, indicating 11%-12% year-over-year growth. While this is well below Salesforce's earlier hypergrowth levels, double-digit growth is still meaningful for a company of its size. These forecasts are broadly aligned with the Zacks Consensus Estimates.

Salesforce Revenue Estimates

Zacks Investment Research
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

Salesforce Looks Beyond CRM for Growth

The bigger reason to stay invested is Salesforce’s shift from a traditional customer relationship management solution provider toward a broader AI and enterprise data platform.

Agentforce is at the center of this strategy. Agentforce ARR (annual recurring revenues) exceeded $1.5 billion in the second quarter, up more than 240% year over year. Combined Agentforce and Data 360 ARR reached nearly $3.9 billion, up more than 210%.

Customer usage is also growing rapidly. Salesforce delivered 3.2 billion Agentic Work Units in the second quarter, up 97% sequentially. Bookings from Agentforce One Edition and Agentforce for Apps more than doubled. The Data 360 platform ingested 104 trillion records during the quarter, up 355% year over year, including 82 trillion records through Zero Copy, which jumped 731%.

Slack recorded its fastest quarterly net new annual order value growth since the acquisition, while Slackbot adoption accelerated. Slackbot users increased more than 150% quarter over quarter. Informatica is another important piece of the story. The acquisition contributed $456 million to second-quarter revenues and $440 million to subscription and support revenues. Salesforce’s fiscal 2027 revenue guidance includes slightly more than three percentage points of Informatica contribution.

These numbers suggest that Salesforce is benefiting from the AI boom. AI models need reliable business data and context to be useful. Salesforce already sits at the center of customer data, workflows and enterprise applications for many companies.

Salesforce’s Valuation Still Leaves Room for Upside

Despite the recent rally, Salesforce’s valuation remains relatively reasonable. CRM trades at around 16.30 times forward 12-month earnings, below the broader sector average of 28.14 times.

Salesforce Forward 12-Month P/E Ratio

Zacks Investment Research
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

Salesforce’s price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple is also lower than its major enterprise software competitors, including Microsoft, SAP and Oracle. Microsoft, SAP and Oracle trade at a forward 12-month P/E multiple of 24.65, 23.48 and 17.99, respectively.

Salesforce Is Not Without Challenges

The rapid growth of generative AI and agentic AI has raised questions about the future of traditional enterprise software. If AI agents can perform more tasks, companies could eventually need fewer software seats. This could pressure subscription models built around per-user pricing.

The broader economy is adding to these concerns. High interest rates, inflation and geopolitical uncertainty have made businesses more careful about technology spending. Enterprises are taking longer to approve large software deals, creating longer sales cycles across the industry.

Salesforce is exposed to these challenges because its business depends heavily on large enterprise customers. Slower IT budgets could make it harder to win new customers and expand existing contracts.

Conclusion: Hold Salesforce Stock for Now

A 34% monthly gain may tempt investors to lock in gains, but the latest operating trends do not suggest that the investment story has run its course.

Revenue growth has stabilized around double digits, cRPO growth has accelerated to 14%, Agentforce ARR is growing at triple-digit rates, and Data 360 usage is expanding rapidly. Salesforce’s second-quarter results show early signs that AI could add value to its existing platform. Despite the sharp rally, holding CRM stock appears more attractive than booking profits.

Salesforce currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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