Salesforce slips over 2% after KeyBanc downgrade; Benioff disputes Agentforce concerns

According to CNBC, Salesforce shares fell more than 2% Thursday to around $162.50 after KeyBanc downgraded the stock to a hold-equivalent rating and withdrew its $290 price target. KeyBanc analyst Jackson Ader wrote that the financial and anecdotal information he is gathering is not improving and said he has been unimpressed by customer feedback on Salesforce’s Agentforce platform, adding he sees little evidence to recommend CRM as a strong buying opportunity beyond valuation. Jim Cramer said Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff contacted him to push back on the note, calling it a bad call and arguing it conflicts with evidence that Agentforce is performing better than the firm indicated. Salesforce is down about 7% over the past month and 38% this year, and the stock hit a multiyear closing low of $150.12 on June 22 after a 14-day slide. In May, Salesforce said Agentforce annual recurring revenue was $1.2 billion, up from $800 billion in the prior quarter.