Salesforce shares are down nearly 10% this year, and one investor keeps scheduling purchase after purchase anyway. The reasoning comes down to a single strategic asset that every AI model will eventually need to borrow.
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I keep buying Salesforce (NYSE:CRM | CRM Price Prediction) because every serious read of the agentic AI economy points back to the same conclusion: the model needs context, and Salesforce owns the context. Shares trade at $238.40, down 9.37% year to date, and I have been adding on every leg lower. This is the receipts for why.
Cash Machine Hiding In Plain Sight
Salesforce generated $14.402 billion in free cash flow in fiscal 2026, up 15.83%. That gives the stock a free cash flow yield of 7.34% at a market cap near $196.2 billion. The trailing P/E sits at 26 and price to free cash flow is only 14. For a business with a 77.68% gross margin and interest coverage of 27.5x, that is the kind of durable cash yield a retirement account is built to compound.
Management is returning that cash aggressively. A $25 billion accelerated share repurchase program is retiring at least 14% of shares outstanding at an average price of $176 per share, well below where the stock trades today. Diluted share count already fell to 821 million from 962 million a year ago. Layer on a quarterly dividend of $0.44, raised from $0.416 and $0.40 in prior periods, and the capital return story is intact.
Agentforce Is Getting Paid
Agentforce ARR crossed $1.5 billion in Q2 FY27, up over 240% year over year. Combined with Data 360, ARR sits near $3.9 billion. Current remaining performance obligations hit $33.5 billion, up 14%. Q2 free cash flow grew 81.49% to $1.098 billion. Management raised FY27 revenue guidance to $46.1 billion to $46.4 billion with a non-GAAP operating margin of 34.3%.
The customer voices matter more to me than the numbers. Xero, a customer since 2014 with nearly 5 million subscribers, rolled its Agentforce service agent to 100% of customers and is running a 62% deflection rate across 200,000 interactions. Legora’s CFO put it plainly: “The agent is only as good as the context that you give it. And that context has to come from an authoritative layer.” Salesforce already centralizes customer data, custom business logic, and operational workflows today, which is the moat rivals cannot rebuild in a quarter.
Why Not ServiceNow
ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) is the name I hear most often as the AI-workflow alternative, and it is a fine business. My money stays with CRM because Salesforce’s AI franchise is already producing paying revenue at scale. ServiceNow’s AI revenue today is less than 10% of company revenues. Agentforce plus Data 360 is closing on $4 billion in ARR right now. I would rather own the compounding that is already booked than the compounding that is still projected.
Risk I Actually Watch
The real risk is monetization design. Salesforce is still partly tied to older per-user pricing while it develops pricing that better captures agentic activity, and pilots must convert to production. What keeps me buying: 50% of Agentforce bookings came from customers refilling their credits, and Salesforce added 2,000 paying customers into production, up 70% quarter over quarter. Consumption is compounding on itself.
Buy Button Stays Active
I own the system of record that every agent, every model, and every custom interface has to trust. As long as free cash flow grows, shares shrink, and Agentforce ARR compounds at triple-digit rates, my next purchase is already scheduled.
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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.
