By Kit Norton

Salesforce stock hasn't found a bottom yet this year and is in the midst of its longest losing streak on record as the artificial-intelligence fueled software selloff has ratcheted up a gear.

Shares of the software company declined 1% to $150.25 on Monday, putting them on pace to close lower for a record 14th straight session, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

The stock has dropped 43% this year amid broad fears that customers could use coding agents to make their own custom versions of Agentforce, Salesforce's AI agent platform.

The last time Salesforce stock closed higher was on June 1, as Wall Street digested mixed first-quarter earnings released on May 27. It appeared at the time that investors were re-evaluating the threat AI could pose to the software sector.

That optimism was short lived as Salesforce stock has cratered 28% over the ensuing losing streak.

Barron's on June 10 announced it no longer recommends Salesforce after choosing it as a stock pick in December.

Software stocks broadly have taken a beating this year amid fears of the so-called SaaSpocalypse, which refers to the impact of AI on the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) industry.

AI agents are a key focus of those fears -- they are software that can use an AI language model to accomplish a complex series of tasks in much the same way a human worker would. Agents are still at an early stage, but a world in which a large portion of knowledge work is being done by machines is being envisioned and they may not need software in the conventional sense.

Salesforce last week appeared to attempt to assuage investor concerns about AI, announcing a $3.6 billion deal to buy an artificial-intelligence agent company, adding a proprietary AI model and agent to its portfolio.

Analysts generally viewed the deal positively -- with Jefferies noting that Salesforce's 15 mergers and acquisitions since May 2025 have helped "accelerate innovation."

However, shares continued to slide, a sign that the acquisition didn't appease investors.

In a sign of the state of Salesforce stock, Monness Crespi analyst Brian White on Thursday upgraded shares to Buy from Neutral with a $200 price target. But the upgrade was based more on how poorly shares have performed this year than anything else.

White wrote that Salesforce has "earned the unflattering title as the second-worst performing stock in our coverage universe in 2026."

Even with the big decline this year on AI fears, White wrote that the stock's valuation is "compelling" and he gave it a Buy rating based on depressed valuation and the company's progress in supporting customers transforming into agentic enterprises.

Much like White, Wall Street remains optimistic about Salesforce. Of the 54 firms polled by FactSet, Salesforce has an average Overweight rating with a $244.58 price target. The stock has 40 Buy-equivalent ratings, two Underweight ratings, and 12 Hold ratings, according to FactSet.

Write to Kit Norton at kit.norton@barrons.com

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 22, 2026 09:45 ET (13:45 GMT)

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