Salesforce.com (CRM) surged 5.09% during intraday trading on Monday, extending a strong recovery as the enterprise software giant benefits from a major government contract win and renewed investor confidence in the cloud sector.

The rally was fueled by the company’s recently secured $1.6 billion contract from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, a significant revenue catalyst that has reinvigorated buying interest. Additionally, sentiment across the software space was lifted by Microsoft’s blowout fiscal Q4 earnings, which showed Azure cloud revenue jumping 43% and validated robust AI and cloud demand. This positive sector backdrop, combined with analyst upgrades from firms including Citi and Guggenheim to Buy, helped offset earlier concerns stemming from Morgan Stanley’s target price cut to $185.

The stock remains over 30% below its 52-week high, with analyst consensus still pointing to a Buy rating and a mean target around $249, suggesting further upside potential as capital continues to rotate into software names.