Salesforce (CRM) shares plunged more than 4% in premarket trading on Thursday after two major Wall Street firms downgraded the stock on the same day, both citing disappointing progress with the company’s Agentforce artificial intelligence platform.
KeyBanc Capital Markets and Bernstein each cut their ratings to Sector Weight, pointing to weak customer feedback, slow AI adoption, and a survey showing more chief information officers plan to deprioritize Salesforce in their IT budgets over the next 12 months. KeyBanc analyst Jackson Ader said he found “little to no evidence, other than the valuation multiple, that the stock lends itself to a bullish recommendation.”
Ader noted that client data “isn’t organized enough” for meaningful AI work and that Agentforce “just isn’t there,” with partners only now moving from proof-of-concept to actual pipeline deals. Bernstein echoed the concerns, saying it struggled to find evidence in financial disclosures that net-new average order value is growing faster than overall AOV growth, a key metric management has emphasized.
Despite a historically low enterprise-value to free-cash-flow multiple, both analysts argued the discount is less compelling when compared to software peers on a growth-adjusted basis. Bernstein stated that meaningful acceleration from Agentforce is “further out than we’d expected, if it plays out at all.”
The downgrades overshadowed Salesforce’s recent announcement that the U.S. Air Force is using its Missionforce platform. The stock, which closed Wednesday at $166.58, fell to around $159 in early action, widening its year-to-date loss to 35%. More than 70% of analysts still rate it a Buy, with an average price target of $241.08.
