Salesforce under pressure
Salesforce’s stock is down about 22–23% YTD even as the company reports AI revenue growth of +169% and launches a $50B buyback — investors are questioning whether legacy SaaS can defend its moat in an AI era. That uncertainty sits alongside a broader SaaS valuation reset, with multiples compressing and buyers demanding clearer proof of AI‑driven ROI. (ad-hoc-news.de) (cfocentre.com)
Agentforce hit an ~$800 million annual run‑rate and closed about 29,000 deals in its first 15 months, while Salesforce reported converting roughly 2.4 billion “agentic work units” and processing ~19 trillion tokens to date. (salesforce.com) Salesforce closed FY26 with $72.4 billion in total remaining performance obligations and $35.1 billion in current RPO, and reported $41.5 billion in full‑year revenue with $15.0 billion in operating cash flow and $14.4 billion in free cash flow. (salesforce.com) Management priced a $25 billion offering of senior notes on March 11 to fund an accelerated share‑repurchase that will deliver $25 billion of stock repurchases via ASR, with initial prepayment and share delivery expected March 16, 2026. (investor.salesforce.com) Credit markets reacted: Moody’s downgraded Salesforce’s long‑term rating to A2 on March 10 citing the debt‑funded repurchase plan and S&P moved the issuer outlook to negative, while the $25 billion bond sale drew a final order book of roughly $36 billion — well below demand for some recent mega deals. (cbonds.com) Market pricing has re‑rated the company: Morningstar shows roughly a mid‑to‑high‑teens percent YTD share decline and a market capitalization near $184 billion as public software multiples compress across the sector. (morningstar.com) For FY27 management guided revenue of $45.8–$46.2 billion (about 10–11% growth) and reiterated a longer‑term revenue pathway toward about $63 billion by FY30 as it pushes broader adoption of Agentforce and Data 360. (cnbc.com) Investor playbooks are shifting: practitioners and public‑company guidance recommend disclosing AI‑specific economics — AI ARR, attach rates, monetization SKUs and adoption metrics — as part of the standard set of KPIs companies must show to defend premiums in today’s SaaS valuation environment. (thesaascfo.com)
