While Investors Scrutinize CEO Marc Benioff's Planned Stock Sale, Is Salesforce's AI Growth Engine Just Getting Started?

Salesforce Inc CRM has faced a difficult 2025, with shares tumbling nearly 30% year-to-date as of Tuesday’s market close. Here’s what investors need to know.

CRM is showing downward pressure. Get the details here.

What To Know: The stock’s recent performance has seen it drop nearly 7% in just the last five trading sessions, closing at $231.66 Tuesday.

This slide occurs despite the company beating first-quarter earnings and revenue estimates and raising its full-year guidance in May.

Adding to investor scrutiny, CEO Marc Benioff sold 2,250 shares of company stock for over $540,000 on Aug. 8. While the transactions were automatically executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan adopted in January 2025, the timing is still catching investors’ attention given the stock’s recent downturn.

The market’s apprehension may be linked to the broader uncertainty surrounding artificial intelligence. While Salesforce is betting heavily on its AI-powered offerings, such as Service Cloud and Agentforce, to drive future growth, some analysts have questioned the company’s acquisition strategy and growth momentum.

The company is navigating a pivotal shift toward AI, which is reshaping perceptions of its long-term potential. Benioff himself has recently sought to dismiss an “AI panic,” stating the technology would augment rather than replace workers, highlighting the charged environment Salesforce must navigate.

Despite strong first-quarter results and repurchasing $2.7 billion in stock, market sentiment remains cautious. Investors appear to be weighing the promises of Salesforce’s AI integration against concerns about execution and a slowdown that has seen the company underperform the broader tech sector.

All eyes will be on the company’s next earnings report on Sept. 3 for signs of whether its AI strategy can reverse the stock’s fortunes.

Benzinga Edge Rankings: According to Benzinga Edge stock rankings, which give four critical scores to help identify the strongest and weakest stocks to buy and sell, Salesforce shows a profile with distinct strengths and weaknesses. The company demonstrates an exceptionally strong score for Growth at 93.09 and a solid score for Quality at 63.03.

But, the data also highlights considerable weakness in other areas, with a low Momentum score of 21.52 and a very low Value score of 9.92. This suggests that while Salesforce is viewed as a high-quality company with strong growth potential, it currently lacks market momentum and is perceived as having a poor value proposition at its current price.

CRM Price Action: According to data from Benzinga Pro, CRM shares closed marginally lower by 0.41% to $231.66 on Tuesday. The stock has a 52-week high of $369 and a 52-week low of $226.48.

How To Buy CRM Stock

By now, you're likely curious about how to participate in the market for Salesforce — be it to purchase shares, or even attempt to bet against the company.

Buying shares is typically done through a brokerage account. You can find a list of possible trading platforms here. Many will allow you to buy “fractional shares,” which allows you to own portions of stock without buying an entire share.

In the case of Salesforce, which is trading at $232.99 as of time of writing the article, $100 would buy you 0.43 shares of stock.

If you're looking to bet against a company, the process is more complex. You'll need access to an options trading platform or a broker who will allow you to “go short” a share of stock by lending you the shares to sell. The process of shorting a stock can be found at this resource. Otherwise, if your broker allows you to trade options, you can either buy a put option or sell a call option at a strike price above where shares are currently trading — either way, it allows you to profit from the share price decline.

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