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...