Multiple Firms Raise Salesforce Price Targets as AI Monetization Signals Strengthen
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Salesforce posted Q2 revenue of $11.35 billion and EPS of $5.90 — far above the $3.27 consensus — while its AI unit Agentforce hit $1.5 billion in ARR growing over 240% year-on-year, prompting a wave of target-price raises and a ~10% pre-market rally.
What do the headline numbers actually say?
Revenue of $11.35 billion edged past estimates; EPS of $5.90 crushed the $3.27 consensus — the profit beat dwarfed the top-line beat.
Current remaining performance obligations (cRPO) — contracted revenue not yet recognized — grew 14% year-on-year. This means → customers are not just using the product; they are locking in longer contracts, a sign of rising stickiness.
The company announced an accelerated share repurchase (ASR) of up to $25 billion, funded by ~$24.84 billion in new debt, pushing non-current liabilities to $39.28 billion. In plain terms = management is borrowing to buy back its own stock — a bet that future cash flows are strong enough to service the debt and then some.
Is AI actually making money?
Agentforce — Salesforce's AI-agent product — crossed $1.5 billion in annual recurring revenue (ARR), up more than 240% year-on-year, accelerating from 205% last quarter.
Slackbot (the AI assistant built into Slack) users grew 150% quarter-on-quarter; paid seat counts across Sales, Service, and Slack all rose year-on-year.
Net new annual order value (AOV) growth hit a four-year high; first-half net new AOV growth meaningfully outpaced total AOV growth. This means → AI is not just a demo story — it is pulling real new bookings.
What is Wall Street thinking — bulls and bears?
Goldman Sachs reiterated Buy, raising its target from $242 to $271. The analyst flagged core-business acceleration of 200 basis points in the back half; 5% of customers have already upgraded to premium bundles at a 60–80% premium to prior annual contract value — well above the 20% uplift assumed in earlier models.
Jefferies kept Buy and lifted its target from $250 to $300 — the Street high. The analyst noted that the Contentful and Fin acquisitions, if closed within weeks, could further boost cRPO growth.
Morgan Stanley raised its target from $185 to $235 but held an Equal-weight (neutral) rating. The analyst conceded the data "turned the volume down on the bear case," while cautioning that organic subscription revenue growth slowed from ~7% to ~6% and second-half execution hurdles remain high.
What does the Anthropic partnership mean?
Salesforce is advancing "Claudeforce," integrating Anthropic's Claude large language model — widely seen as a leading GPT rival — into its product line. The investment relationship traces back to Anthropic's 2023 Series C.
RBC Capital Markets broke down the packaging: Claudeforce will ship as a premium bundle or standalone add-on SKU; deeply embedded enterprise clients can get an all-inclusive deal with "headless" capability — back-end API access with no front-end UI required — priced on a consumption basis rather than elastic credits.
Management also previewed "AI Force," a new umbrella brand for all of Salesforce's AI capabilities, starting with Claudeforce and Slackbot. This reflects a strategic shift from selling individual AI features to building an AI-platform ecosystem.
What should investors watch next?
Can Agentforce ARR keep accelerating? The 240% growth sits on a still-small base; whether momentum holds as the base rises over coming quarters is the make-or-break test for the AI narrative.
Contentful and Fin acquisition impact — Jefferies expects a direct cRPO lift if the deals close within weeks, but integration execution risk is always real.
Dreamforce, September 15–17 in San Francisco — management is expected to unveil further AI strategy details, including progress on the Anthropic and Nvidia partnerships and flexible pricing models. This means → the conference is the key validation window for whether the second-half valuation thesis can deliver.
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