Salesforce, Inc. (CRM) closed 2024 on a high note, delivering a robust 27% gain in a turbulent market. This impressive performance outpaced the Zacks Computer – Software industry’s 14.7% growth and the S&P 500’s 24.4% rise.It has also exceeded other peers in the space, including Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) , Intuit Inc. (INTU) and Adobe Inc. (ADBE) , positioning Salesforce as a standout in its industry. MSFT and INTU shares have risen 12.1% and 0.5%, respectively, while ADBE declined 25.5% in 2024.2024 Pri ...

AI Software Industry Trends - 2025 is shaping up to be the year of AI software, with a shift from semiconductor stocks like Nvidia to software companies capitalizing on the AI boom [1] - Agentic AI is rapidly becoming a buzzword, with autonomous agents being one of the most immediate applications of generative AI beyond chatbots [1] - The broader software space is expected to benefit from AI, with use cases exploding [1] Salesforce's Agentic AI Leadership - Salesforce is poised to be a leader in agentic AI with its product Agentforce, leveraging its long history in CRM software [2][3] - Agentforce allows users to build and customize autonomous AI agents that can serve employees and customers 24/7, resolving 83% of visitor requests on Salesforce's help site [4] - Salesforce's deep customer relationships and 25-year history give it an edge in the agentic AI market [5] Impact of Agentforce on Salesforce - Agentforce has significantly expanded Salesforce's total addressable market (TAM), creating a new market that is much larger than the data management market [5] - Salesforce has already signed 200 deals with Agentforce, with the pipeline described as "incredible" [5] - Agentforce has the potential to deliver high-margin profits due to its scalability and low marginal cost [8] Revenue and Growth Outlook - Salesforce's revenue growth rate has slowed to 8 3% in the third quarter, with no immediate evidence of Agentforce impacting growth [6] - The company forecasts 7% to 9% revenue growth for the fourth quarter and 9% growth in remaining performance obligations (RPO) [6] - It may take a few more quarters for Agentforce and agentic AI to begin impacting Salesforce's growth [7] Potential of AI Software - AI software like Agentforce has the potential to greatly scale productivity, decoupling it from workforce growth [5] - Cloud infrastructure companies have invested tens of billions in Nvidia components to build AI infrastructure, highlighting the massive potential of AI software [9] - Agentforce is expected to be a game changer for Salesforce, though the exact impact on TAM and growth remains unclear [10]

Online spending rose 3% to a record $1.2 trillion globally over the holiday period, with U.S.-sales, specifically, growing 4% to $282 billion. That’s according to a new report from Salesforce, which aggregated data from across its various cloud services, including Agentforce, Commerce Cloud, Marketing Cloud, and Service Cloud, to garner insights into spending activity spanning 1.5 billion shoppers across dozens of countries from November 1 through December 31, 2024. Overall, the figures fall slightly shor ...

Artificial intelligence (AI) helped holiday sales reach record levels this year, new Salesforce data shows.However, the company said in a report issued Monday (Jan. 6), high rates of returns could hinder the overall profit margins on the $1.2 trillion in global sales.“Retailers had a robust holiday season, but a 28% rise in the rate of returns compared to last year is a cause for some concern,” Caila Schwartz, director of consumer insights at Salesforce, said in a Monday news release.“Retailers who have emb ...

Salesforce is quietly emerging as a force in the artificial intelligence (AI) landscape, and the company's next big opportunity could be worth trillions.Under the leadership of technology visionary Marc Benioff, Salesforce (CRM 0.52%) has become one of the most influential companies in the world of enterprise software.At its core, Salesforce is a leader in customer relationship management (CRM) -- a tool that allows sales leaders to track deal flow, pipeline trends, marketing campaigns, and more in a data-c ...

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Jan. 06, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH), the fifth-largest public homebuilder in the U.S., today announced the appointment of Geisha Williams as an independent director to its Board of Directors, effective immediately. Her appointment demonstrates the Company's commitment to ongoing board refreshment and increased diversity as it increases its size to 12 directors. The Board plans to consider Ms. Williams for appointment to one or more board committees over the course ...

Market Performance and Catalysts - The Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500, and Nasdaq Composite ended 2024 higher by 13%, 23%, and 29% respectively, reaching multiple record-closing highs [1] - Key catalysts for the stock market surge included hefty stock buybacks, better-than-expected corporate earnings, stock-split euphoria, and the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) [2] AI's Economic Impact - AI is expected to increase global GDP by 26%, or $15.7 trillion, by 2030, with $6.6 trillion from productivity improvements and $9.1 trillion from consumption-side effects [4] Nvidia's Dominance in AI Hardware - Nvidia's market value grew from $360 billion in 2023 to nearly $3.3 trillion by the end of 2024, driven by its AI hardware [6] - Nvidia's sales are projected to surge from $27 billion to an estimated $195 billion in three years, fueled by its AI-inspired GPUs [7] - The company charges up to a 300% premium for its Hopper chip compared to competitors, contributing to a gross margin in the mid-70% range [8] - Nvidia's Blackwell chip is designed to accelerate computing in areas like quantum computing and generative AI while being more energy-efficient [9] Shift to AI Agents in 2025 - The next stage of the AI revolution focuses on AI agents, which are software programs capable of performing tasks autonomously [11][12] - AI agents are being deployed in various sectors, including customer support, financial trading, and autonomous vehicles [13] - Salesforce is leading the charge in agentic AI, with its Agentforce suite resolving 83% of client concerns autonomously [14][15] - SoundHound AI, with a market cap of $7.3 billion, saw its stock surge 836% in 2024, driven by its voice AI and conversational technology [16] - SoundHound AI aims to expand its voice recognition solutions into next-gen automobiles and other settings [17] Historical Context and Caution - The early stages of new technologies, such as the internet, often involve overestimation of adoption rates and utility, leading to unpredictable outcomes [20][21] - While AI agents are poised to be a major trend, the technology's long-term success will depend on businesses' ability to effectively integrate and monetize AI [22][23]

Market Opportunity - Project management software is part of a $100 billion market opportunity growing at 14% annually [1] - The company estimates its total addressable market (TAM) is growing at 14% annually to over $100 billion across four markets: work management, CRM, service management, and software development [12] Financial Performance - Q3 2024 revenue exceeded analysts' estimates by 1.9%, rising 33% to $251 million [5] - Earnings per share of 22 cents surpassed expectations [5] - The company raised its 2024 revenue guidance to $965 million, a 32% increase and $7 million more than previous guidance [23] - Free cash flow forecast for 2024 increased to $287.5 million, $5 million more than previous guidance [15] - The company reached $1 billion in annual recurring revenue in Q3 2024 [27] Customer Growth and Retention - The company's new CRM product brought in 25,000 customers in two years [10] - The company has 250,000 customers across 200 industries globally [22] - Retention rate consistently tops 100%, driven by organic expansion within companies [24] Competitive Advantage - The company's flexible architecture for risk management works across any industry [2] - The platform is simple, easy-to-use, and flexible, filling the gap between rigid and expensive solutions like Salesforce and smaller competitors [28] - The company's culture, focused on hiring humble, passionate, and no-nonsense individuals, is a sustainable source of advantage [16] Future Prospects - The company expects revenues to increase 10-fold, aiming to reach $10 billion like competitors [7] - The company sees significant growth opportunities by expanding its product line and broadening its geographic scope [27] - The company is still young in a huge growth market with a strong customer base and initial product that can be leveraged [23] Stock Performance - The stock has fallen 28% since the Q3 2024 report despite the company posting the fastest revenue growth and highest full-year guidance raise [18][29] - Based on 21 Wall Street analysts, the stock would need to rise 39% to reach the average price target of $324 per share [19]

Lenovo and SentinelOne Partnership - Lenovo, the world's largest PC vendor with a 25% market share and 59 million PCs sold in 2023, will begin shipping computers with SentinelOne's Singularity Platform preinstalled in the second half of 2025 [1] - This partnership represents an enormous opportunity for SentinelOne, given Lenovo's significant market presence [1] Technology Stocks in the Bull Market - Technology stocks have been a driving force in the current bull market, which is over two years old [2] - With the average bull market lasting approximately five and a half years, technology stocks are expected to continue performing well [2] Nvidia - Nvidia is the leading producer of GPUs, which are increasingly used for AI training and inference due to their superior speed compared to CPUs [4] - The company has developed a software platform for programming GPUs, which has become the standard for developers and includes AI-specific tools and libraries [5] - The exponential need for computing power in AI training, exemplified by the use of 10,000 GPUs for the first version of ChatGPT and 160,000 for Meta's Llama 4, underscores Nvidia's strong position in the market [6] Salesforce - Salesforce is well-positioned in the AI software space, particularly with its CRM platform and acquisitions like Mulesoft, Tableau, and Slack [7] - The company's autonomous AI agents, called Agentforce, have seen strong early adoption with 200 deals closed and thousands more in the pipeline [8] - Agentforce is a usage-based product priced at $2 per conversation, with a forecast of 1 billion AI agents deployed by the end of fiscal 2026 [9] - Agentforce 2.0 includes a no-code platform and prebuilt agent skills, with the ability to execute actions across any app or workflow and integration into Slack [10] - Salesforce's focus on agentic AI, where AI agents act autonomously, positions it as a strong player in the next phase of AI development [11] SentinelOne - SentinelOne's Singularity Platform uses AI to predict, monitor, and eliminate threats across public, private, or hybrid cloud environments [12] - The company has gained traction with a large Fortune 50 customer and several government customers switching to its platform following a CrowdStrike outage [13] - SentinelOne's Purple AI solution, which helps analysts hunt complex security threats using natural language prompts, is the fastest-growing solution in the company's history [13] - Despite a lagging stock price in 2024, SentinelOne has demonstrated strong revenue growth of 28% last quarter and trades at less than half the price of CrowdStrike on a forward P/S basis [14]

联系人： 云梦泽 021-60933155 yunmengze@guosen.com.cn 优于大市 赛富时(SALESFORCE)（CRM.N） 自研+并购扩张 AI 版图，Agentforce 打开增长空间 公司研究·公司快评 计算机·IT 服务Ⅱ 投资评级：优于大市（首次） 证券分析师： 库宏垚 021-60875168 kuhongyao@guosen.com.cn 执证编码：S0980520010001 事项： 事件：当地时间 12 月 3 日，赛富时（CRM.N）发布 2025 财年三季度业绩，首次实现 20%运营利润率，并上 调全年业绩指引。近期全球股票市场围绕 AI 的投资焦点由硬件转向软件，AI 软件公司面临价值重塑。 请务必阅读正文之后的免责声明及其项下所有内容 证券研究报告 | 2024年12月25日 国信计算机观点：1）三季度费用率改善，营业利润率创新高：公司实现营业收入 94.4 亿美元，同比+8%。 公司首次实现 GAAP 运营利润率为 20%，同比+2.8 个 pct。2）AI 产品稳步推进，RPO（剩余履约义务）持 续扩张：a）公司于 10 月推出了名为 Agentforce ...