Wall Street Just Panic-Dumped an Unstoppable $72 Billion Software Empire: Here Is the 1 AI-Driven Bargain I Am Loading Up On

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By Alex Sirois Published

Quick Read

  • CRM fell 42% year-to-date while posting its strongest quarter ever, beating EPS consensus by $0.75 for the fifth consecutive time.

  • QQQ dropped just 3% after Salesforce's May earnings while CRM cratered 14%, creating a valuation gap at a forward P/E of 17.

  • Agentforce ARR surged 205% to $1.2 billion, anchored by $72 billion in contractually obligated future revenue and a $50 billion buyback authorization.

  • This lithium producer surpassed a $1B private valuation, joining some of America's most powerful startups. Now you can invest in EnergyX alongside global giants like General Motors, but only through July 16. (sponsor)

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Wall Street Just Panic-Dumped an Unstoppable $72 Billion Software Empire: Here Is the 1 AI-Driven Bargain I Am Loading Up On

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I keep hitting the buy button on Salesforce (NYSE:CRM | CRM Price Prediction), and I am not sorry about it. The stock sits at $152.76, down 42.03% year to date and 43.18% over the past year, while the company itself just delivered the strongest quarter in its history. That is the gap I am buying.

Wall Street panic-dumped a business that grew Q1 FY27 revenue 13.27% YoY to $11.13 billion and posted EPS of $3.88 against a $3.13 consensus, the fifth consecutive beat. Meanwhile the Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ:QQQ) is only down 2.58% since the May 27 earnings release while CRM dropped 13.72% over the same window. The discount is the story.

The thesis I cannot shake

Salesforce is becoming the operating system for what Marc Benioff calls the “Agentic Enterprise.” Agentforce ARR hit $1.2 billion, up 205% YoY, and combined with Data 360 the AI stack runs at roughly $3.4 billion in ARR, up more than 200% YoY. The platform delivered 3.8 billion Agentic Work Units in a single quarter and processed 28.6 trillion tokens. That is real monetization, not a slide deck.

Salesforce also signed a $3.6 billion cash agreement to acquire Fin (formerly Intercom), folding an autonomous customer support agent directly into the Agentforce suite that is already scaling toward $800 million in annualized run rate. The Informatica deal, which contributed $444 million to Q1 revenue, gives the agents clean enterprise data to act on. Pieces are clicking together.

The data that keeps me adding

First, valuation. CRM trades at a P/E of 17 with a free cash flow yield of 11.51%. A retail post on r/stockmarket framing the selloff as “completely detached from fundamentals” at 11x forward earnings has pulled 791 upvotes. When retail and fundamentals agree on the math, I pay attention.

Second, the capital return is aggressive. Management deployed a $25 billion accelerated share repurchase, took delivery of 103 million shares upfront, and shrank the count from 970 million to 819 million in a year. The board sits on a $50 billion total buyback authorization while paying a $0.42 quarterly dividend.

Third, the forward book. Total RPO of $72.4 billion and cRPO of $33.6 billion, up 14% YoY, are contractually obligated revenue. FY27 guidance was raised to $45.9 billion to $46.2 billion with non-GAAP EPS of $14.06 to $14.12, and the company is targeting $63 billion in revenue by FY30.

The risk I refuse to dismiss

Noncurrent debt jumped from $10.4 billion to $39.3 billion to fund that buyback. Higher interest expense is a real headwind, and prediction markets currently price Databricks at 63.5% probability of a higher valuation than CRM by June 30. Interest coverage of 27.52x and net debt to EBITDA of 0.78 tell me the balance sheet can carry it, and $6.56 billion of quarterly free cash flow services the new load without choking growth investment.

Why my finger stays on the button

I am buying a 77.68% gross margin software franchise with 90% of the Forbes Top 50 AI companies as customers, accelerating AI revenue, a shrinking share count, and a price that reflects exhaustion rather than evidence. When the market sells the business that owns the rails of agentic enterprise software, I keep loading up on repeat.

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.

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About the Author Alex Sirois →

Alex Sirois is a financial writer with experience spanning both retail and institutional investing. He has written for InvestorPlace and held roles at BNY Mellon and Bernstein, giving him a perspective that bridges Main Street portfolios and Wall Street analysis.

Alex holds an MBA from George Washington University and has built his career across multiple industries, including e-commerce, education, and translation — a breadth of experience that informs how he breaks down complex financial topics for everyday investors. His writing is conversational, actionable, and grounded in long-term, buy-and-hold investing principles.

At 247 Wall St., Alex focuses on delivering analysis that is both accessible and useful, with a clear emphasis on helping readers make more informed decisions with their money.

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