SalesForce.com Inc.CRMPARTIAL BUYJun 13, 2023Stock price when the opinion was issued
As of Jun 01, 2026. Market Open.
He doesn't hate the stock here, and he owns some software stocks, but they all live under the cloud that AI will threaten their business. When they report today, if they can assure the market in their guidance that their customers are using their AI products, then this is the answer to putting a floor to these software-apocalypse news. If they don't, there will be new lows.
Still owns, but watching closely as the competitive landscape continues to evolve. Next leg of growth tied to AI, and that's where the debate is. AI is lowering barriers to entry, so market's reassessing its moat. Execution will be critical.
Strong support from a technical level. If it drops further, she'll sell and take the loss. Right now it's wait-and-see.
It will take time to play out, longer than the market expects. But these software companies are operating very strongly. Enterprise software is more customized than mass-market software which meet specific needs. He prefers the former for their more durable moats. CRM's PE is very low, around 11x, and the company is doing lots of good things. Remember that LLMs (AI) are very expensive to create and run, and these companies need to partner with large companies. It could wind up that AI companies partner with software companies. He doesn't know how it well pay out, but possibly the large software companies could win.
Today they reported a robust top and bottom line beat, but their full-year forecast was a little light, so shares fell after hours. They will buy back $50 billion shares, or a quarter of their share count. Fears of the AI apocalypse are overblown, fears of wiping out the entire white-collar class are wrong. CRM is too entrenched to go under. Trades at only 15x PE.
(Note the short timeframe.) Still likes, and wants to give it time. Software space finally getting back to attractive valuations. AI disruption fears are a bit overstated; weakness is sentiment, not fundamental. This company is embedding AI into its platform. Still seeing strong demand for its tools.
Lots of FCF last quarter. She sees over 70% upside from here.
CRM is another big tech stocks comeback story, rallying 20% in the past year, but 65% year-to-date after plunging to end 2022. Activist investors have been driving cost cutting to beef up profit margins rather than raise sales growth. The results: Q1 revenues topped estimates, operating margins improved and the company raised the July revenue forecast from $8.49 billion to $8.52 billion. Something is working. Add to this momentum, CRM throwing their hat into the Generative AI ring with Einstein and AI Cloud. The new tech can help enterprise clients craft emails, service briefings, case summaries and work orders. Read 3 Big Tech Stocks Making a Comeback for our full analysis.