Salesforce shares popped 5% on Friday, extending a rally that began after the company's better-than-expected earnings report earlier in the week.
The stock climbed 13% over the past five days, its best weekly performance since December 2023.
The company reported adjusted earnings per share of $3.25, topping Wall Street's estimates of $2.86 per share. Revenue increased 8.6% year over year to $10.26 billion but just missed analyst projections of $10.27 billion.
Although the artificial intelligence boom has pushed several tech companies into record surges, cloud software firms have seen a rocky year as investors wonder whether AI will render the industry obsolete.
Salesforce is hoping to persuade Wall Street that AI will be able to bolster its products rather than replace them.
Investors "somehow think software companies are under arrest from AI, when the opposite is true," Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff told CNBC's Jim Cramer on Thursday.
During the third quarter, the company acquired startups Regrello and Waii, which uses AI to generate code with natural language instructions.
Despite Salesforce's shares being down 22% year to date, compared with the Nasdaq's 22% gain, analysts are more optimistic for 2026.
"CRM [Salesforce] continues to be levered to digital transformation, and we expect the company to grow at a solid rate going forward," Mizuho analysts wrote. "At the same time, we believe CRM will remain fiscally disciplined and that it can continue to drive higher operating and FCF margins."
Analysts highlighted Salesforce's AI platform Agentforce, which builds agents that automate business tasks and streamline workflow.
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