Salesforce Stock Has Surged as AI and Anthropic Bets Pay Off, But Technical Risks Remain - Microsoft (NAS

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) stock has staged a strong comeback in the past few months, moving from the year-to-date low of $144 to $260. This rally accelerated after the software giant published strong financial results and as its Anthropic investments pays off in a big way.

Salesforce Stock Jumped After its Earnings Beat

CRM stock jumped after the company published its strong financial results, which showed that its revenue continued growing. Its current remaining performance obligation (cRPO) jumped by 14% to $33.5 billion in the second quarter, while its revenue soared by 11% to $11.3 billion. Informatica, which it acquired last year, contributed $440 million to its revenue.

Most importantly, there are signs that Salesforce's approach to artificial intelligence is starting to pay off. Agentforce and Data 360 businesses generated an annual recurring revenue of nearly $3.9 billion. It had 7 billion Agentic Work Units, which were delivered across its products like Agentforce and Slack.

The management boosted its forward guidance, a sign that it expects its business to do well. It now expects that its revenue will be between $46.1 billion and $46.4 billion, representing a 12% increase from what it made last year.

Salesforce and other software companies have been under intense pressure in the past few months as concerns about SaaSPocalypse remained. This is the view that software companies will be disrupted by artificial intelligence tools.

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Anthropic IPO to Boost Salesforce

Another catalyst boosting Salesforce is its investment in Anthropic, which is reportedly planning to go public at a valuation of up to $2 trillion. Salesforce first invested in Anthropic's 2023 Series C round and has since participated in every subsequent funding round. Its stake is now estimated at $5 billion, and if Anthropic reaches that $2 trillion valuation, the position would be worth substantially more.

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Salesforce is one of the many companies that will benefit from Anthropic's IPO. Some of the other top ones are Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), and Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA).

These events explains why analysts have boosted their CRM stock forecast. Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) hiked its target to $315, while Needham, BTIG, Cantor Fitzgerald, and Deutsche Bank have all boosted their targets.

Technicals Points to a CRM Stock Pullback

While Salesforce has some notable catalysts, technicals suggest that the stock may experience a pullback in the near term. It has already hit the crucial resistance level of $267, which aligned with the highest swing in December last year.

The stock has already formed a shooting star candlestick pattern, which is made up of a small upper shadow and a body. This pattern often leads to a retreat. It has also formed a fair value gap on August 27 that it may attempt to fill. More gains will be confirmed if it moves substantially above the resistance at $267.

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