Latest news with #Salesforce
Toronto Star
18 hours ago
- Business
- Toronto Star
Here's why your team fails to use Gen AI effectively — and how you can change that
A digital divide on Generative AI is emerging in the Canadian business landscape. Nearly half of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are haunted by the spectre of being left in the dust as the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution races forward, according to Salesforce's global small & medium business trends report. For those Canadian companies that have dipped their toes into the AI waters, the rewards are undeniable. A staggering 94% report that AI is a revenue booster, a clear signal that this technology is not just hype, but a powerful engine for growth. Yet, many SMBs struggle to fully realize its potential. Despite significant investments in Gen AI tools, teams often fail to use them effectively. This disconnect often stems from a lack of targeted training. Opinion articles are based on the author's interpretations and judgments of facts, data and events. More details
Yahoo
20 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
These Are the 2 Worst-Performing Stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average So Far in 2025
Key Points The DJIA is in positive territory thus far in 2025. But two major stocks have seen sharp declines. 10 stocks we like better than UnitedHealth Group › The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI) is up nearly 5% so far this year, with many of its best performers rising in value by 20% to 30%. But some of the index's components haven't fared so well. Two well-known stocks in the DJIA have collapsed in value through the first six months of 2025. Investors on the lookout for bargains should take a closer look. This tech giant is struggling in 2025 For years, Salesforce (NYSE: CRM) has been a market darling, consistently posting double-digit growth rates. Thus far in 2025, however, Salesforce stock has lost nearly one-quarter of its value. What's going on? This fiscal year, Salesforce is anticipating 7% to 8% revenue growth -- its first single-digit annual growth rate in years. In past years, it has managed consistent 20% to 30% annual growth rates. Analysts are concerned that the company's best days are behind it. As an analyst at Bernstein Research concludes, "We have been concerned that Salesforce was a mature business in a mature market and that expectations were running too high in general. UnitedHealth stock is down 40% It's been a very rough year for UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH). Shares are down roughly 40% in value, with most of the drop occurring over the past 90 days alone. Is this your chance to buy a healthcare giant on the cheap? This is a complicated and ongoing situation. Earnings forecasts have been reduced dramatically due to higher costs and claims, while the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating the company for overbilling. Meanwhile, the company's CEO departed in May, shortly after Wall Street analysts changed earnings projections. UnitedHealth stock is cheap at just 12.2 times earnings. But investors need to get comfortable with all the moving pieces before jumping in. Should you invest $1,000 in UnitedHealth Group right now? Before you buy stock in UnitedHealth Group, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and UnitedHealth Group wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $652,133!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,056,790!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,048% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 180% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of July 15, 2025 Ryan Vanzo has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Salesforce. The Motley Fool recommends UnitedHealth Group. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. These Are the 2 Worst-Performing Stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average So Far in 2025 was originally published by The Motley Fool
Yahoo
20 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Salesforce (CRM) Wins Analyst Confidence With AI Advances and Price Hike Potential
Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) is one of the . On July 16, Citizens JMP analyst Patrick Walravens reiterated a 'Market Outperform' rating on the stock with a $430.00 price target. The firm came out optimistic on the stock following its chat with Richard Socher at the Citizens Technology Forum. The forum was held at the Solage Resort in Calistoga, California. Socher is not only the CEO and founder of and General Partner and founder of AIX Ventures, but also a former Executive Vice President and Chief Scientist at Salesforce from 2016 to 2020. Being an influential AI researcher, Socher's background has been helpful in assessing Salesforce's position in the AI landscape. Besides Citizens JMP, other firms such as JMP Securities and Cantor Fitzgerald are also optimistic about the stock due to factors including Informatica's preliminary proxy statement, which reveals multiple potential acquirers involved in the merger process, along with the increasing adoption of Agentforce and the likelihood of increased revenue from upcoming price hikes. Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) is a cloud-based CRM company that has gained popularity following the unveiling of its AI-powered platform, 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.
Toronto Star
21 hours ago
- Business
- Toronto Star
Here's why your team fails for use Gen AI effectively — and how you can change that
A digital divide on Generative AI is emerging in the Canadian business landscape. Nearly half of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are haunted by the spectre of being left in the dust as the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution races forward, according to Salesforce's global small & medium business trends report. For those Canadian companies that have dipped their toes into the AI waters, the rewards are undeniable. A staggering 94% report that AI is a revenue booster, a clear signal that this technology is not just hype, but a powerful engine for growth. Yet, many SMBs struggle to fully realize its potential. Despite significant investments in Gen AI tools, teams often fail to use them effectively. This disconnect often stems from a lack of targeted training. Opinion articles are based on the author's interpretations and judgments of facts, data and events. More details
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
3 No-Brainer Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks to Buy With $300 Right Now
Key Points Many AI stocks have seen their valuations climb higher as market excitement in the industry grows. These three companies all provide essential tools and services for building new AI capabilities. Salesforce, Alphabet, and TSMC trade at low prices relative to their future growth potential. 10 stocks we like better than Salesforce › The bull market that started in October 2022 has been dominated by a single theme: artificial intelligence (AI). Over the past three years AI has dominated the conversation on Wall Street regarding how it holds the potential to transform businesses, create new opportunities, and drive earnings growth for numerous industries. Indeed, some of the biggest businesses in the world have been driven higher as their earnings explode amid the push for AI dominance. Nvidia is the poster child for AI stocks, climbing an eye-popping 1,330% from October 2022 to today and surpassing a $4 trillion market capitalization. As many of the most popular AI stocks have soared higher, a lot of them now look fairly pricey these days from a valuation standpoint. An investor just starting out with $300 will want to ensure they're buying a great company at a fair price, and those are getting harder and harder to find in the AI space. But there are still a few good opportunities out there if you're willing to do the work. Here are three stocks, all with share prices below $300, that can help you get started. 1. Salesforce Salesforce (NYSE: CRM) is best known for its growing suite of enterprise software, which covers everything from its original sales vertical to customer service. The company has been working to integrate AI capabilities with all of its software, but its biggest development over the past year is Agentforce. Agentforce is built on top of Salesforce's Data Cloud software, which helps aggregate all of the data generated by a business into a single unified source. With Agentforce, customers can create AI agents that can tap into that data to make informed decisions and complete low-level tasks. Salesforce sees enterprises using Agentforce as part of their customer service and sales teams and internally for research or teaching new skills to employees. Salesforce had 8,000 Agentforce contracts as of the end of the first quarter, generating over $100 million in annual recurring revenue after just two full quarters of sales. CEO Marc Benioff says it's the fastest Salesforce product to reach that milestone. The strong early results of Agentforce are encouraging, but it's worth noting that it remains a small part of the overall business for now. Salesforce generated $37.9 billion in revenue during fiscal 2025, which ended Jan. 31, so it'll take some time before the new AI product has a significant direct impact. But the indirect impact could be substantial. It encourages users to take more of Salesforce's products, including Data Cloud, which should increase revenue and retention rates over time. Salesforce stock trades for about $260 as of this writing. At that price, shares are valued at just 23 times forward earnings estimates. That's a great value for a company that's leading the push toward agentic AI. With management's focus on improving profitability, it should be able to grow earnings per share at a double-digit pace for the foreseeable future, more than justifying its current price. 2. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE: TSM), known as TSMC, is the largest contract chip fabricator in the world. Thanks to its scale and leading technology, which commands a premium price, TSMC brings in over two-thirds of all spending on outsourced chip production. And that market share is growing. There are two important reasons why TSMC continues to take market share: its scale and its technology. As the leading chip manufacturer, TSMC has more money to invest in expanding its production capabilities. When there's a ramp-up in spending on chips like we've seen with AI over the last few years, TSMC is best equipped to handle that demand. TSMC also takes a significant amount of its sales and reinvests it into research and development, ensuring its technology remains ahead of its closest competitors. That ensures it can continue winning contracts for the most high-end cutting-edge chips well into the future. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said TSMC isn't just the best in the world when it comes to its chip technology, it's "the world's best by an incredible margin." Management set lofty expectations for its second-quarter results, and it exceeded them based on its preliminary sales reporting. Based on its monthly sales data, TSMC grew revenue 39% last quarter on the back of strong AI-related demand. Shares of the stock have climbed higher over the last few weeks on that strong monthly sales data and overall strength in chipmakers. Still, at $229 per share, the stock's forward P/E ratio is just 24. That's far lower than most leading AI stocks, especially chipmakers like Nvidia (which trades for more than 38 times forward earnings). Even after the run-up, the stock looks attractive, and it could continue to climb as AI spending doesn't look to be slowing down anytime soon. It's a great option for your $300. 3. Alphabet Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) is the company behind Google. Many see AI as a major threat to Google, since more and more people may use OpenAI's ChatGPT or Anthropic's Claude for searches for information. Perplexity has developed product searches and its own AI-first web browser, which could displace Google's Chrome browser. And OpenAI is reportedly following in its footsteps. The fears accelerated in May when Apple's product chief testified that the company saw fewer Google search queries on its Safari browser in April, the first time it's ever experienced a drop in search traffic. The implication was that AI chatbots were stealing traffic from Google. But so far Alphabet has managed to see much more benefit from artificial intelligence than any downsides. Google has integrated AI into Google Search with AI Overviews, Google Lens, and Circle to Search. The former has expanded the range of search queries on Google, increasing engagement and user satisfaction, according to management. Importantly, management says searches with AI Overviews monetize at similar rates as those without. Meanwhile, Google Lens and Circle to Search have led to an increase in product-related searches, which are generally more valuable for advertisers. As a result, Google Search revenue climbed 9% in the first quarter. The bigger revenue driver from AI, though, is Google Cloud. The company has seen strong demand for cloud computing as developers look to train and develop their own software powered by large language models. That led to a 28% increase in revenue in the first quarter. More importantly, Google Cloud's operating margin expanded from 9.4% to 17.8% last quarter as it scales. And based on its bigger competitors, there could be a lot of margin expansion for Google Cloud in the years ahead. As such, it should provide strong support for bottom-line growth at Google in combination with the slow and steady growth of Google Search. On top of that, Alphabet also has several other irons in the fire. The biggest of those other businesses is likely Waymo, which has grown quickly over the past few years with its self-driving car service. The company now says it completes 250,000 rides per week, and it's expanding to several more cities in 2025. The potential for Waymo once it scales and brings down the cost of production for its vehicles is significant, but in the near term Alphabet is willing to sink money into it to maintain its first-mover advantage. At a current price of $181, shares of Alphabet trade for a forward P/E of just 19. That's far and away the least expensive of the "Magnificent Seven" stocks and an absolute bargain considering the growth potential of Google Cloud and the cash flow generated by Google Search. Investors with just $300 could see solid long-term returns from a stock that has remained resilient for years. Should you buy stock in Salesforce right now? Before you buy stock in Salesforce, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Salesforce wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $674,281!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,050,415!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,058% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 179% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of July 15, 2025 Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Adam Levy has positions in Alphabet, Apple, Salesforce, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Apple, Nvidia, Salesforce, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. 3 No-Brainer Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks to Buy With $300 Right Now was originally published by The Motley Fool
