Salesforce Plunges 35% to Become Dow's Worst-Performing Stock of 2026

Salesforce (CRM) has become the worst-performing stock in the Dow Jones Industrial Average this year, with its shares plunging 35.2% year-to-date. The steep decline reflects mounting investor skepticism over the company's pivotal artificial intelligence strategy and a string of recent analyst downgrades.

Agentforce AI Fails to Inspire Confidence

The core of the sell-off stems from what the source material describes as a "crisis of confidence" in Agentforce, Salesforce's flagship autonomous AI platform. Enterprise customers appear hesitant to adopt the new technology, leading analysts to reassess the company's near-term growth prospects.

Recent analyst actions highlight the growing concerns:

• KeyBanc downgraded the stock to Sector Weight on July 9, noting that customers' data is often "not organized for meaningful AI work."
• Bernstein also cut its rating to Sector Weight and removed its price target entirely after its survey of chief information officers showed more enterprise buyers plan to deprioritize spending on Salesforce over the next 12 months.

Broader Headwinds and Market Underperformance

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Beyond the AI narrative, other parts of Salesforce's business are showing signs of strain. On July 14, Evercore ISI trimmed its price target to $250, citing specific weakness in the company's Tableau and Commerce Cloud segments. The stock's year-to-date loss significantly outpaces other laggards in the 30-stock index; the next-worst performer, Nike (NKE), is down 29.3%.

Worries about the broader enterprise software market have also weighed on the stock. Shares dropped 4% in one premarket session on July 9 after reports that Starbucks was developing its own in-house AI tools, potentially replacing vendor software. Aggressive capital deployment, including a ~$3.6 billion acquisition of Fin and a $25 billion debt offering to fund a buyback, has also raised questions among some investors about near-term priorities, according to the source.

Analysts Divided on Future Outlook

Despite the pervasive bearish sentiment, not all on Wall Street have abandoned the stock. Goldman Sachs maintains a Buy rating with a $242 price target, anticipating an acceleration in organic growth in the third quarter and more clarity on AI monetization at a planned September event.

Similarly, Guggenheim recently upgraded the stock to Buy, arguing that the negative case surrounding its AI products is "overblown." With the stock trading at a price/earnings-to-growth (PEG) ratio of 0.49, investors are now faced with determining whether the shares represent a deep value opportunity or a value trap pending the successful execution of its AI ambitions.