While the Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSEARCA:DIA) has climbed 3.4% year-to-date entering Thursday's trading, three blue-chip giants went the opposite direction. Salesforce (NYSE:CRM), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT | MSFT Price Prediction), and UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) became the index's biggest drags, each shedding double-digit percentages while the broader market marched higher. Beating earnings doesn't guarantee stock gains when investors question the path forward.
The five-year chart of Salesforce stock might look aimless and random at first glance. Bear in mind, though, that charts can tell us where the buyers tend to step in. This five-year chart provides some clues about how far CRM stock could travel in either direction. The stock was double its current price just a year ago, and it has rallied above $300 at least three times in the past.
The company announced a 10-year, $5.6 billion defense contract with the U.S. Army and joined a $100 million wildfire prevention venture called EMBERPOINT LLC. The Army contract runs through Salesforce's Missionforce National Security subsidiary, accelerating AI-powered decision-making across millions of military personnel. At $560 million annually, this represents 1.4% of Salesforce's $40.3 billion revenue base. Not transformational, but meaningful for a company trading at 18x forward earnings with analysts targeting 33% upside to $329.65.
Salesforce announced the Agentic Enterprise License Agreement (AELA) last October. It creates an all-you-can-eat approach to buying and consuming AI agents at a capped cost, and accompanies existing consumption-based and flexible credit models.
Salesforce has signed a new contract with the Army to provide access to its artificial intelligence, data, and cloud technologies for the next decade. The contract, signed by Salesforce subsidiary Computable Insights LLC, has a five-year base period and a single five-year option period. The Army and rest of the Defense Department will have access to Salesforce's Missionforce National Security products that support efforts in decision making,
It was a nasty year for the software stocks in 2025, as investors pondered the disruptive impact of artificial intelligence (AI). With shares of enterprise software and AI agent innovator Salesforce ( NYSE:CRM) and creative software titan Adobe ( NASDAQ:ADBE) starting off the very first trading day of the year with a steep decline, it feels like all hope is lost for 2026, as the ailing software plays come in limping to kick off 2026.
As the year begins to wind down, investors are looking to position themselves for 2026. In recent days, insiders, including beneficial owners, at Crescent Biopharma Inc. ( NASDAQ: CBIO), MGM Resorts International ( NYSE: MGM), and Salesforce Inc. ( NYSE: CRM) have boosted their stakes in their companies in a big way. Though these were the most prominent insider purchases in that time, there were a number of other notable ones as well.
Slack CEO Denise Dresser is leaving the company and joining OpenAI as the company's chief revenue officer, multiple sources tell WIRED. Marc Benioff, the chief executive of Salesforce, which owns Slack, shared news of Dresser's departure in a message to staff on Monday evening. At OpenAI, Dresser will manage the company's enterprise unit, which has been growing rapidly this year. She will report to chief operating officer Brad Lightcap. She starts next week.
As Salesforce explains, AI models have a wealth of general knowledge, but often know nothing about your organization. As soon as you start using AI for specific business processes, it sometimes has to guess what certain values mean or how they should be interpreted. Some things may still be clear, such as a customer number, but what if there is an order form number, invoice number, order number, ticket number, batch number, and quotation number?
Dreamforce is, by this point, a bona fide tradition in San Francisco. Tens of thousands of people flock to South of Market each autumn to don lanyards, strap on winning smiles and plunge into a branding extravaganza. For three days, the Moscone Center, the Metreon mall and an entire block of Howard Street are remade in Salesforce's image. The tech conference also draws a mass of journalists like me, hoping to see how CEO Marc Benioff and his guests will peddle their new tools and technologies.
