BofA upgrades Salesforce, lifts 2026 target to $285

what happened

Salesforce shares advanced more than 3% in Monday’s premarket session after Bank of America changed its rating from Underperform to Buy. According to gurufocus.com, BofA analyst Tal Liani lifted the price target from $160 to $285, reflecting a more positive assessment of Salesforce’s role in the enterprise artificial intelligence ecosystem.

The bank argues that large businesses are unlikely to remove deeply embedded systems responsible for data, workflows and compliance merely because they are adopting AI. Instead, AI could increase reliance on those platforms. Liani said Salesforce can participate across several parts of the AI value chain, limit the threat from foundation-model disintermediation and support higher platform usage, premium product sales and faster long-term revenue growth.

BofA also highlighted better operating momentum, pointing to growth in new annualized order value and stronger results at Slack. Its subscription and support revenue growth forecasts now stand at 10.4% for fiscal 2028 and 10.5% for fiscal 2029, compared with earlier estimates of 9.9% and 10.2%. The $285 target implies a valuation of roughly 16 times projected 2027 free cash flow, versus 9 times previously and slightly above the 15-times peer average.

why it matters

The central market issue is whether AI will add value on top of Salesforce’s existing platform instead of replacing enterprise applications. BofA noted that AI-related revenue remains small, making Agentforce, AI growth, Slack and subscription trends key indicators.

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