Salesforce’s $25 Billion Buyback Is Looking Like A Great Deal. Cramer Says “Whatever Was Ailing The Stock Is Over”

Jim Cramer is calling Salesforce's massive buyback a stroke of genius, but today's price action tells a more complicated story about whether the software giant's rough stretch is truly behind it.

Published September 16, 2026, 2:15pm ET · 3 min read

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Jim Cramer, wearing a blue shirt and red tie, points with his right hand to a large screen displaying a green line graph showing an upward trend for 'SALESFORCE BUYBACK: $25 BILLION.' To his right, Marc Benioff is shown in a dark suit, speaking. A Salesforce skyscraper and cloud logo are prominently featured, with a blue overlay showing 'CRM ▲ $251.59' and 'MAD DASH' text. The '24/7 WALL ST' logo is in the bottom right.
Jim Cramer points to Salesforce's strong stock performance, highlighted by its $25 billion buyback, during his 'Mad Dash' segment. The visual emphasizes the positive market sentiment around CRM. © 24/7 Wall St.

Jim Cramer used his Mad Dash segment on Wednesday to make a bullish call on Salesforce (NYSE:CRM | CRM Price Prediction), arguing that the software giant’s aggressive buyback is aging well and that sentiment around the name has turned. His summary line: “There’s a lot of sense that whatever was ailing the stock is over.” Cramer is describing a sentiment he detected around the company, not citing a specific metric.

CRM price target

Why Cramer Thinks the Buyback Looks Smart

Cramer’s core argument was about timing. He told viewers Salesforce “bought a huge amount of stock back in the 170s, according to CNBC. That looks like it’s a pretty smart deal. People felt that they were hurting their balance sheet. Well, it turns out it didn’t even dent their balance sheet. It’s a very positive story.” The characterization of the balance sheet is Cramer’s, not ours.

The program he is referring to has been reported at $25 billion in size, disclosed alongside the company’s most recent quarterly results in the Q2 FY27 8-K exhibit filed on August 26, 2026. The Q2 release described an accelerated share repurchase with an average price of $176 per share to date and an expectation to “repurchase at least 14% of shares outstanding through this program.”

Set Cramer’s 170s against where Salesforce trades now: $251.59 as of 1:34 p.m. ET on September 16, 2026. Readers can draw their own conclusion about the entry point.

CRM price scenario

A Complication Cramer’s Segment Doesn’t Address

Today’s price action does not fully cooperate with the bullish framing. Salesforce is down 1.59% on the session from a previous close of $255.65, and the stock remains down 4.53% year to date. Those figures sit uneasily next to the “ailing is over” framing.

What supports Cramer is the recent run. Salesforce is up 28.22% over the past month, having traded at $196.21 on August 14, 2026. That rebound is the move that makes the repurchases in the 170s look like better and better business as the weeks pass, according to CNBC.

Cramer on the Keynote and “Slackforce”

Cramer also flagged what he considered the most substantive part of Marc Benioff’s keynote presentation: a new AI product he chose to describe with his own shorthand. In his words, “Marc did talk about a new product. I want to call it slack force because that I felt was the most serious part, according to CNBC. So many companies have slack now. It gives the ability for a company to unlock trapped, trapped value.” To be clear, “Slackforce” is Cramer’s coinage. It is not a product name Salesforce announced.

For context on the Slack piece of that thesis, Salesforce management said on the Q2 call that Slackbot reached one million active users five months after launch, up 150% quarter to quarter, and that Q2 Slack Net New AOV was the fastest quarterly growth since acquisition.

CRM earnings explorer

Cramer also described the atmosphere around Benioff: “I’ve not seen marc like this in a long time. I mean, jensen is walking by and jensen starts talking about his product with marc, according to CNBC. Google doing things with marc.” That is Cramer’s account of what he saw in the room, and it is anecdotal by nature. No partnership or commercial agreement was announced in what he described.

What to Watch Next

Salesforce has an Investor Day scheduled for September 16, 2026, and the final settlement of the accelerated share repurchase is expected in October 2026. Investors weighing Cramer’s take against today’s price action have two clear checkpoints ahead: the long-term financial framework management lays out this week, and the final share count once the ASR settles.

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.

AJ Tiarsmith

AJ spent 10 years writing about financial markets at The Motley Fool. His coverage centers on technology stocks and the broader macroeconomic trends, from interest rates to geopolitics,  that shape where markets are headed next. AJ is drawn to the stories where big-picture economics and individual companies collide.

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