Salesforce’s Agentforce Initiative Drags Down Stock Performance
Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) has become the worst-performing stock in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, down approximately 31.48% year to date due to challenges with its AI agent platform, Agentforce. Despite being positioned as a key growth driver for 2026, enterprise adoption of agentic AI remains low—over 88% of pilots fail to reach production—and Gartner predicts over 40% will be abandoned by 2027 due to poor ROI. The company faces credibility issues rather than demand problems. Bernstein downgraded Salesforce in early July citing weak customer feedback on Agentforce, while Goldman Sachs maintained a Buy rating and $242 price target, anticipating stronger growth later this year as more AI monetization details emerge at an upcoming event. Salesforce’s stock is trading at a historically low forward P/E of 10.83x—far below its five-year average of over 127x—and significantly cheaper than peers like ServiceNow (P/E ~20.43x). Despite this, bearish sentiment persists with short interest at 6.39% and hedge fund ownership declining in Q1.
Topics: Agentforce AI Dow Jones Market sentiment Salesforce performance