MW Salesforce's stock has been hit hard by AI fears. Can anything in its earnings report turn things around?

By Hannah Pedone

Salesforce will try to flip the AI narrative with its earnings report Wednesday afternoon, but some on Wall Street think that might be a challenge

Salesforce is expected to report $11.2 billion in revenue for its fourth quarter, according to analyst estimates.

Salesforce has been the poster child for Wall Street's concerns about business software and the growth prospects of the software-as-a-service model.

With the threat of artificial-intelligence tools hanging over it, Salesforce shares have fallen out of favor with investors over the last year. The stock is the 11th-worst performer in the S&P 500 so far in 2026 and is down 32.8% this year. That's after it lost 21% in 2025.

While software stocks across the board have been battered by AI fears and some enterprise-software companies have seen bigger percentage declines in their shares, none were as mighty as Salesforce.

On Wednesday afternoon, the software giant will try to reassure Wall Street that its business and growth prospects remain strong.

Is there anything Salesforce can say alongside its fiscal fourth-quarter report to change the investment narrative? BMO Capital Markets analyst Keith Bachman is doubtful.

"Net, we do not expect the pending quarter to cause either bulls or bears to switch sides," he wrote in a Friday report.

Even a "reasonable though unspectacular" report may leave bears feeling that the company's long-term growth potential remains uncertain in the market, he added.

Read more: Did a blog post just cause software stocks to lose more than $200 billion in market cap?

Last quarter, Salesforce's management increased guidance for full-year revenue to between $41.45 billion and $41.55 billion, which baked in 80 basis points of contribution from Informatica, a data-management company that Salesforce acquired last November.

Salesforce is expected to report $11.2 billion in revenue for the fourth quarter, according to FactSet analyst consensus estimates. That would be up 12% from a year before.

Adjusted earnings per share is expected to come out to $3.05, up from $2.78 in the fourth quarter the year before.

Monness, Crespi, Hardt & Co. analyst Brian White said in a note that while he likes Salesforce's positioning in generative AI, growth has been "uninspiring."

Still, he noted that the Informatica deal will offer Salesforce "financial wiggle room" and added that the newly acquired business is likely to receive "ample airtime" on the earnings call.

Investors are likely to also focus on the performance of the company's Agentforce AI offering and Data 360, formerly known as Data Cloud.

KeyBanc Capital Markets analyst Jackson Ader said in a note that the "AI-displacement narrative" has hit Salesforce hard. But he said investors will be listening closely for guidance that could point to a revenue impact from Agentforce in the new fiscal year.

See also: While Wall Street is betting against software, retail investors have poured in - and done well

-Hannah Pedone

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February 24, 2026 12:08 ET (17:08 GMT)

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