Bank of America upgrades Salesforce to buy, cites AI pivot as catalyst

Five months ago, Bank of America told investors to steer clear of Salesforce. On October 12, 2026, it told them to buy.

BofA Securities analyst Tal Liani issued a double upgrade on Salesforce (CRM), moving the stock from Underperform straight to Buy. He also raised his price target from $160 to $285, a sharp swing in conviction for a name the bank was bearish on as recently as spring.

What changed BofA’s mind

Liani pointed to improving trends in how Salesforce is monetizing its AI products. The centerpiece is Agentforce, the company’s platform for AI agents that handle tasks inside enterprise software.

The catalyst he flagged is Salesforce’s Winter ’27 release. That update widens availability of Agentforce and folds it more deeply into the workflows businesses already run on Salesforce.

There is also some early evidence that the tools are doing something useful. Salesforce has reported that its new commerce-focused AI features posted a 13% increase in conversion rates and a 17% rise in cart additions during initial deployments.

How the market reacted

Investors took the upgrade well. Salesforce shares climbed between 3.5% and 4.6% intraday, trading in a range of roughly $237 to $239.

That bounce comes against a rough backdrop for the stock. Salesforce had fallen 13% year-to-date before the upgrade.

The new $285 target sits well above where shares were trading on the day.

A full reversal from May

The upgrade is notable mostly because of what came before it. On May 18, 2026, BofA downgraded Salesforce to Underperform with a decidedly gloomy thesis.

At the time, the bank warned that revenue growth could slow to approximately 10% annually. It cited limited new customer acquisitions and disappointing early monetization of Agentforce.

Agentforce was contributing less than 2% of Salesforce’s revenue at that time.

What this means for Salesforce and enterprise software

The Winter ’27 release matters because broader availability means more customers can try Agentforce, and deeper integration means more reasons to keep paying once they do.

The commerce metrics give the bullish case something concrete to point to. A 13% lift in conversions and a 17% jump in cart additions are early-stage results that speak directly to revenue for Salesforce’s customers.

The concerns about slowing growth and sluggish new customer wins were the core of BofA’s earlier thesis. The key questions going forward are whether Agentforce’s share of revenue grows meaningfully beyond the sub-2% level BofA cited in May, and whether the commerce results hold up as deployments scale beyond initial tests.