Salesforce, Inc. (CRM)

Salesforce's stock price has been influenced by several key events in the past six months. Strong first-quarter results and earnings per share beating analyst estimates led to stock increases. Investor skepticism about AI advancements and concerns about the Informatica acquisition negatively impacted the stock. The stock dropped over 10% in Q3 2025 due to AI worries. However, an ambitious long-term revenue forecast exceeding $60 billion by 2030, driven by new AI features, caused a significant stock increase. Overall, the stock has shown a decrease of 11.91% over the last year and 13% over the past year.

While Salesforce's core CRM platform serves a consistent business need, demand for its products and services can exhibit seasonality, particularly in industries with fluctuating business cycles. Salesforce's "elastic workforce" concept, which leverages AI agents, is designed to scale up or down to meet seasonal demand surges. Industries like retail and travel and hospitality are highly susceptible to seasonal fluctuations. Salesforce addresses these seasonal demands by offering solutions like Sales Cloud for advanced forecasting and flexible staffing in retail, and Service Cloud for dynamic pricing and enhanced booking systems in travel and hospitality. During low seasons, these industries can utilize Salesforce Marketing Cloud for targeted promotions and AI-powered analytics for inventory management optimization.

Salesforce, Inc., headquartered in San Francisco, California, is a cloud-based software company specializing in customer relationship management (CRM) technology and enterprise cloud computing solutions. The company operates in the Technology sector, specifically in the Computer Software: Prepackaged Software industry, and is also involved in cloud computing, enterprise software, and consulting. Salesforce provides applications for sales, customer service, marketing automation, e-commerce, analytics, AI, and application development. Its major products include Sales Cloud for managing leads and opportunities, Service Cloud for customer support, Marketing Cloud for marketing campaigns, Commerce Cloud for online selling, Platform for app creation, Slack for collaboration, Tableau Software for data analysis, MuleSoft for data integration, Net Zero Cloud for tracking emissions goals, Industry Clouds for specific sectors, and Agentforce 360, a new platform embedding AI across its clouds.

Salesforce has a significant international presence, serving clients on every continent. Its corporate headquarters are in San Francisco, California, and it has regional headquarters and key offices in major global cities like New York, London, Tokyo, and Sydney. These locations support regional operations, client engagement, and market expansion across North America, EMEA, and APAC. As of January 31, 2025, Salesforce employs over 76,453 individuals across more than 90 global offices. The Americas is Salesforce's largest global market, followed by Europe and Asia Pacific.

Salesforce's brand reputation has been shaped by its strategic shift towards profitability and investments in AI. The company's historical reputation for lavish spending on events has changed, contributing to increased profitability. Salesforce is positioning itself as an AI leader, integrating AI across its ecosystem to enhance productivity and deliver smarter solutions. The company announced a $15 billion investment over five years in San Francisco's AI development. However, inappropriate emoji use in CRM marketing can damage brand reputation, with consumers potentially avoiding brands due to such usage.

Salesforce, Inc. is primarily owned by institutional shareholders, who hold approximately 80.96% of the company's stock. Salesforce insiders own about 5.28%, and retail investors hold 13.76%. Major institutional owners include Vanguard Group Inc., BlackRock Inc., State Street Corp, Geode Capital Management LLC, Morgan Stanley, Capital International Investors, JPMorgan Chase & Co, and Fmr LLC. Marc Benioff, the Chairman and CEO, is the largest individual shareholder, owning 3.36% of the company's shares.