Latest news with #Informatica
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
From $100M to $1B? Salesforce's Agentforce (CRM) Might Be the One to Watch
Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) is one of the 10 AI Stocks Getting Wall Street's Attention. On June 17, Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Matthew VanVliet reiterated an 'Overweight' rating and $325.00 price target on the stock. The rating affirmation follows Salesforce's Summer '25 release announcement of over 100 new features and upgrades, with Agentforce being the highlight. Having launched in October 2024, Salesforce has already gained traction and generated more than $100 million in annual recurring revenue. According to the firm, the Summer '25 product announcements were 'incremental, base-hit type improvements' across Salesforce's portfolio. However, Agentforce has been a rapidly evolving offering alongside the broader Data Cloud + AI business expansion. A woman using a tablet to navigate the cloud-based bill payment technology. Cantor forecasts Agentforce to exceed $1 billion in annual recurring revenue 'in only a couple of years' on the back of its current product evolution and momentum. Salesforce's proposed acquisition of Informatica was also highlighted as a potential growth catalyst, estimated to close next year, provided it is approved. Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) is a cloud-based CRM company that has gained popularity after it unveiled its AI-powered platform called Agentforce. While we acknowledge the potential of CRM as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock. READ NEXT: and Disclosure: None. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Despite Limited Near-Term Catalysts, Oppenheimer Reaffirms Salesforce (CRM) at Overweight
Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) is one of the 10 best tech stocks to buy according to billionaires right now. On June 9, an analyst at Oppenheimer reiterated his Outperform rating on the stock and maintained a $370 price target. In this latest note, the analyst pointed to a positive tone from the company management in their recent meeting, particularly around product demand, AI platform capabilities, and early-stage pipeline momentum. Within the AI platforms, he was specifically upbeat about traction in Agentforce and Data Cloud. Copyright: drserg / 123RF Stock Photo However, despite the constructive messaging, the analyst acknowledged that short-term catalysts appear limited. The recent announcement of a potential deal with Informatica Inc. (NYSE:INFA) is also weighing on sentiment for now. The company's historical track record in integration of acquired companies is not particularly strong, and thus the market is still cautious on the long-term synergies of this acquisition. That said, the Oppenheimer analyst maintains a longer-term positive view, citing Salesforce's strong position in the evolving AI landscape. The firm believes Salesforce is well placed to serve as a primary data layer and system-of-records provider in enterprise AI adoption. In the first week of June, an analyst from Cantor Fitzgerald also initiated coverage on Salesforce with an Overweight rating and a price target of $325. He cited the company as one of the highest-quality businesses within their coverage. Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) is a cloud-based software company specializing in customer relationship management (CRM) solutions. The company offers a comprehensive suite of cloud-based applications for sales, service, marketing, and analytics, enabling businesses to connect with their customers more meaningfully. Its platform is designed to help organizations streamline their operations, enhance customer engagement, and drive growth through data-driven insights. While we acknowledge the potential of CRM as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock. READ NEXT: The Best and Worst Dow Stocks for the Next 12 Months and 10 Unstoppable Stocks That Could Double Your Money. Disclosure: None. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Business Wire
12-06-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Informatica Expands Partnership with Databricks as Launch Partner for Managed Iceberg Tables and OLTP Database Service at Data + AI Summit 2025
REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Informatica (NYSE: INFA), an AI-powered enterprise cloud data management leader, today announced a significant expansion of its partnership with Databricks at the 2025 Data + AI Summit. Informatica is a launch partner for two major innovations from Databricks—Managed Iceberg Tables and Databricks Lakebase, a first-of-its-kind, modern database built for AI. Informatica also unveiled GenAI-focused enhancements to its Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) platform to accelerate data and AI at scale with Databricks. These announcements further strengthen Informatica's leadership in cloud data management and its deep integration with the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform. Support/Launch Partner for Databricks' New Managed Iceberg Tables As a launch partner for Databricks Managed Iceberg Tables, Informatica enables customers to ingest, cleanse, govern and transform Iceberg-format data at enterprise scale. This allows organizations to convert any data to Iceberg format and leverage open table formats with confidence while maintaining high-performance analytics and AI workloads on the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform. Launch Partner/Connectivity for Databricks' New OLTP Database Informatica is also a launch partner for Databricks Lakebase, a new fully managed, Postgres-compatible database that supports high-volume transactions. Informatica enables seamless data loading and transformation from over 300 sources into the Databricks PostgreSQL service. This will help customers support transactional database (OLTP) use cases by leveraging all their enterprise data assets within the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform, providing uniform enterprise data management for analytics, AI and now transactional workloads. Accelerating GenAI Adoption with CAI for Mosaic AI In addition, Informatica is introducing new capabilities aimed at accelerating the adoption of AI agents and GenAI on Databricks Mosaic AI, Databricks' suite of AI solutions that helps enterprises build and deploy quality AI agent systems. These include: Mosaic AI connectors for Cloud Application Integration (CAI): Rapidly deploy AI agents that integrate enterprise data with Mosaic AI through a no-code interface. GenAI Recipes for CAI: Pre-configured templates that simplify and speed up GenAI application development and deployment. Enhanced Volume Support for Databricks Integration New volume support for Informatica's Cloud Data Integration (CDI) and Cloud Data Ingestion and Replication (CDIR) allows Databricks customers to move and manage non-tabular datasets more efficiently via Unity Catalog—reinforcing Informatica's strength in no-code, governed data integration. 'As a launch partner for our Managed Iceberg Tables and Lakebase, Informatica is committed to supporting Databricks' goal of helping customers leverage open table formats,' said Roger Murff, VP of Technology Partners at Databricks. 'With Informatica's support for GenAI through Databricks Mosaic AI connectors and GenAI recipes, we're enabling enterprises to streamline AI initiatives that harness data intelligence and create real business impact.' 'Informatica continues to be at the leading edge of Generative AI, enabling our joint customers to build a data foundation of trusted, AI-ready data,' said Rik Tamm-Daniels, Group Vice President of Strategic Ecosystems and Technology at Informatica. 'As a launch partner, today's announcement showcases our ongoing commitment to innovating with Databricks to maximize customer value through deep product enhancement and partnership alignment.' Join Informatica at DAIS 2025 Informatica invites attendees to visit booth #325 at the Databricks Data + AI Summit to explore how Informatica and Databricks are jointly driving the future of AI and enterprise data management. About Informatica Informatica (NYSE: INFA), a leader in AI-powered enterprise cloud data management, helps businesses unlock the full value of their data and AI. As data grows in complexity and volume, only Informatica's Intelligent Data Management Cloud™ delivers a complete, end-to-end platform with a suite of industry-leading, integrated solutions to connect, manage and unify data across any cloud, hybrid or multi-cloud environment. Powered by CLAIRE® AI, Informatica's platform integrates natively with all major cloud providers, data warehouses and analytics tools— giving organizations the freedom of choice, avoiding vendor lock-in and delivering better ROI by enabling access to governed data, simplifying operations and scaling with confidence. Trusted by 5,000+ customers in nearly 100 countries—including over 80 of the Fortune 100—Informatica is the backbone of platform-agnostic, cloud data-driven transformation.
Business Insider
11-06-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
Salesforce (CRM) Faces Neutral Outlook as Valuation Struggle Sours Investor Sentiment
Being a leader in a sector with a vast addressable market comes with significant challenges. For Salesforce (CRM), as a dominant player in customer relationship management (CRM) software, maintaining its leadership position while continuing to grow organically has long been a key objective to support its high valuation multiples. Confident Investing Starts Here: Easily unpack a company's performance with TipRanks' new KPI Data for smart investment decisions Receive undervalued, market resilient stocks right to your inbox with TipRanks' Smart Value Newsletter However, over the past six months, this dynamic has begun to show signs of strain. Organic growth, which once demonstrated steady strength, has started to slow, reflecting both market maturity and increasing competition. As a result, investors, who previously viewed Salesforce as a reliable option for consistent growth and expanding margins, are adopting a more cautious outlook. Furthermore, the pressure to justify high valuations has prompted the company to adopt strategies such as mergers and acquisitions (M&A). This move also signals that Salesforce may be struggling to deliver significant organic growth in the short to medium term. So, I think the real challenge now is figuring out how much of this slowdown is already priced into the stock and whether there's room for positive surprises that could shift the cautious sentiment. From my perspective, with little to no margin of safety at current prices, I'm taking a neutral stance on Salesforce. Salesforce Isn't Slipping or Soaring A big part of the bullish case for Salesforce is that the CRM giant has a strong moat thanks to its large corporate customer base. These customers are difficult to replace due to the platform's complexity and scale. While acquiring these customers can be costly, maintaining and retaining them is relatively cheap, which has helped Salesforce's margins improve over time. Currently, Salesforce's gross margins sit at 77%, compared to a five-year average of 74.5%. That said, growth has slowed as the company has gotten bigger. In the company's first-quarter earnings report, released at the end of May, revenue declined from the previous quarter for the first time since 2019, reaching $9.83 billion. The high end of the revenue guidance for FY2026 is $41.3 billion, which implies a growth rate of approximately 9%. The market consensus, however, is slightly more optimistic, expecting growth of around 10.6% for the year. From my perspective, given Salesforce's modest returns over the past twelve months compared to the broader market, it's clear that the AI-driven growth story hasn't yet sparked a new cycle of organic growth. Salesforce just recently announced an $8 billion acquisition of Informatica to boost its AI data foundation. The market tends to see Salesforce's return to acquisitions as a sign it's struggling with organic growth. Plus, Informatica itself isn't exactly a high-growth company—it's growing in the single digits but with solid margins. So, it seems Salesforce's AI strategy is more about defending its customer base and preventing losses to competitors, rather than being a game-changing innovation with a clear competitive edge. Winning by Scale, But Not Immune to Pressure Even with its strong competitive moat, Salesforce is no longer the only option for enterprises. The Customer Relationship Management (CRM) space has become increasingly crowded, with competition coming not only from established giants but also from companies that initially served small and medium-sized businesses and are now expanding into the mid-market. I'm thinking specifically of HubSpot (HUBS) and (MNDY). At the top end of the market, Microsoft's (MSFT) Dynamics 365 and Oracle (ORCL), through its CX/ERP solutions, have expanded their offerings to cover the entire customer sales cycle, going head-to-head with Salesforce in the corporate space. While each company still has its own value propositions in specific niches, it's clear that their product lines are overlapping more and more, which intensifies direct competition. In the long run, this increased competition is likely to continue, but it may not prevent Salesforce from maintaining its leadership position in corporate CRM. However, it could limit its pricing power and put pressure on profit margins. For now, consensus estimates expect Salesforce to grow its EPS by about 17.5% annually over the next five years. That's a solid pace, but still a bit slower than the roughly 20% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) Salesforce has delivered over the past five years. Valuations and the Question of Margin Safety On one hand, investors are evaluating Salesforce in the context of broader digital transformation trends, particularly in AI, and the company's ability to maintain a premium position as the leading provider of CRM software. According to current market consensus, Salesforce's revenue is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.8% over the next five years, which is notably slower than the 16% CAGR it achieved over the previous five years. If operating margins remain stable at 20.2% through FY2025, and assuming the CRM market continues to grow, Salesforce seems focused on maintaining steady margins, with some support from inorganic growth. Should operating margins improve in line with the projected five-year EPS growth of 17.5% CAGR, this would imply an annual expansion of operating margins by approximately 1%. By the end of the forecast period, revenue is expected to reach $60.1 billion, with operating margins advancing to the mid-twenties. Based on historical capital expenditures (CapEx) and depreciation and amortization (D&A) data, excluding distortions from past Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) and Related amortization, I estimate that the adjusted free cash flow to the firm (FCFF) in five years would be approximately $15.3 billion. Discounting this at 8.4%, which seems reasonable given the current high risk-free rate and a 4% equity risk premium, and applying a 3% terminal growth rate (on the optimistic side), the resulting equity value is approximately $228 billion. This represents a decrease of roughly 12% from Salesforce's current market capitalization of around $260 billion. Given this relatively modest growth outlook, there doesn't appear to be a clear margin of safety in the current investment thesis. Is Salesforce a Buy, Sell, or Hold? Wall Street remains generally bullish on Salesforce. Out of 47 analyst ratings over the past three months, 34 are bullish, ten are neutral, and three are bearish. Furthermore, the consensus price target indicates significant upside potential: CRM's average stock price target is $348.49, implying ~28% in potential upside over the coming year. Current Valuation Lacks a Clear Margin of Safety Despite increased competition and a slowdown in Salesforce's core growth and margin expansion, the company's story still has many positive aspects. From its dominant market position to its stable and predictable financial performance, Salesforce has demonstrated its ability to thrive even in challenging macroeconomic conditions, making it an attractive stock for investors. However, despite the stock's recent underperformance, I don't believe there is a clear margin of safety at current valuation levels. Therefore, I think a more substantial pullback—perhaps back to the $240 range, last seen in April—could present a more favorable entry point.
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Was Jim Cramer Right to Defend Salesforce (CRM) After Its Post-Earnings Collapse A Year Ago?
We recently published a list of . In this article, we are going to take a look at where Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) stands against other stocks that Jim Cramer discusses. In those older episodes, Jim Cramer addressed the sharp 20% post-earnings drop in Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM). In the first segment, he broke down the company's disappointing earnings report and explained why the stock's after-hours collapse may have been overdone. In the following episode, he widened the lens to discuss broader weakness in the enterprise software sector but reiterated his long-term belief in Salesforce's quality and resilience. Here are his comments from back then: 'What the heck just happened to the stock of Salesforce? That's the king of customer relations management software. After the close, Salesforce reported a genuine miss. Several key lines were weaker than expected—revenue, operating margin, current remaining performance obligations—although the earnings per share number actually came in better than expected. […] A customer service team in an office setting using the company's Customer 360 platform to communicate with customers. Cramer remained a long-term believer and said to buy on weakness — a good call as the stock is up +12.62%. Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) is the world's leading customer relationship management (CRM) platform, offering cloud-based tools for sales, marketing, service, and analytics. Cramer remains a big believer in Salesforce. Here's his analysis from a recent episode which aired in June: 'How come I'm sticking with this one?…. Look, I can't dispute that the growth of the core business is slowing here, but that's, I think, simply the law of large numbers… I don't care that old Salesforce is seeing slower growth because it's also seeing a significant increase in profitability. People are treating this like it's an ailing revenue growth story, and that's why they bought in Informatica to kind of hide it. But it's increasingly become an earnings growth play, and the earnings growth is excellent, and Informatica doesn't worry me. Overall, CRM ranks 1st on our list of stocks that Jim Cramer discusses. While we acknowledge the potential of CRM as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an extremely cheap AI stock that is also a major beneficiary of Trump tariffs and onshoring, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock. READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires. Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
