---
type: "Topics"
locale: "en"
url: "https://longbridge.com/en/topics/100000000863600.md"
description: "$Salesforce(CRM.US) Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff agrees that AI will have a big impact on his company, but he thinks it'll be for the positive. That's why he had the company take on a huge amount of debt to buy the beaten-down stock. The $25 billion in accelerated repurchases, combined with normal repurchases funded by cash flow, brought the total to a record $27 billion in buybacks during the first quarter. Debt isn't exactly cheap right now. The bonds Salesforce issued have interest rates ranging from 4.5% to 6.7%. But Salesforce's stock is arguably even cheaper, or at least, Salesforce's management would say so. To justify issuing debt at a 6.7% rate, management must estimate that the cost of equity is well above that level. Salesforce is now trading at a historically low valuation of just 14 times forward earnings. At that level, the market is already pricing in years of sluggish revenue growth before a potential sales contraction. Meanwhile, management is guiding for revenue acceleration in the back half of this year, fueled by its artificial intelligence services: Agentforce and Data 360. Combined annualized recurring revenue for Agentforce and Data 360 doubled year over year last quarter, and continues to show strong momentum. As Agentforce and Data 360 continue to scale and management focuses on keeping overhead low, this should push the business toward its long-term goal of an adjusted operating margin of around 40% by fiscal 2030, up from about 34% today. Given the cheap cost of equity, front-loading its $50 billion of share repurchases seemed like a smart move. However, Saleforce has been lagging its peers when it comes to recovering. Therefore I'm staying patient and waiting for more data to back up the view that Salesforce can and will recover by continuing to adopt AI usage. I will only add if the statistics back themselves up. @Captain's Treasure"
datetime: "2026-08-21T08:27:33.000Z"
locales:
  - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/topics/100000000863600.md)
  - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/topics/100000000863600.md)
  - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/topics/100000000863600.md)
author: "[NewUser_CkrdqW ](https://longbridge.com/en/profiles/16451694.md)"
generator: "portal-rs"
---

# $Salesforce(CRM.US) Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff ag…


### Related Stocks

- [CRM.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/CRM.US.md)

---
> **Disclaimer: This article is for reference only and does not constitute any investment advice.**