Best Stocks To Invest For 2026

The enterprise software landscape is currently undergoing its most significant transition since the advent of the cloud. On December 3, 2025, Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE: CRM) released its third-quarter fiscal 2026 financial results, sending a clear signal that the era of the “Agentic Enterprise” has arrived. For months, the market had questioned whether the rapid rise of Generative AI would disrupt the traditional CRM model or amplify it. The latest Salesforce Earnings report provided a definitive answer, characterized by a decisive bottom-line beat and a strategic pivot toward consumption-based AI agents. For investors and analysts tracking CRM stock, this quarter was not just about the numbers; it was about a fundamental shift in how the world’s largest CRM company intends to capture the next wave of digital transformation.

The Numerical Stronghold: Beating Estimates Amid a Transition

Salesforce’s financial performance for the third quarter, ending October 31, 2025, demonstrated the company’s characteristic operational discipline. Total revenue reached $10.26 billion, a 9% year-over-year increase (and 8% in constant currency). While this figure was broadly in line with or slightly below the most aggressive analyst estimates, the real story was found further down the income statement. Non-GAAP diluted earnings per share (EPS) came in at $3.25, a massive 35% surge year-over-year, which shattered the consensus Wall Street estimate of $2.86.

This earnings surprise—a 13.6% beat—highlights the “Profitable Growth Framework” that CFO Robin Washington has championed. The gap between revenue growth (9%) and EPS growth (35%) is the result of aggressive margin expansion and the maturation of Salesforce’s cost-cutting initiatives. In this CRM Financial Report, the company reported a non-GAAP operating margin of 35.5%, a testament to its ability to scale its cloud infrastructure efficiently while holding back on excessive headcount expansion.

Equally important to the long-term outlook for CRM stock is the Remaining Performance Obligation (RPO), which represents the total future revenue under contract but not yet recognized. Total RPO rose to $59.5 billion, up 12% year-over-year. The Current RPO (cRPO), the portion expected to be recognized as revenue within the next 12 months, reached $29.4 billion, growing 11%. This double-digit growth in cRPO suggests that despite a cautious spending environment among some enterprises, the core “pipeline” of Salesforce remains robust, providing high visibility into fiscal 2027 revenue.

The Agentforce Revolution: From SaaS to Agentic AI

The central pillar of the Salesforce Earnings narrative this quarter was “Agentforce,” the company’s newly rebranded AI agent platform. Management revealed that the combined Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) for Agentforce and Data 360 reached nearly $1.4 billion, representing an explosive 114% year-over-year growth. Even more startling was the fact that Agentforce ARR alone surpassed half a billion dollars in Q3, growing 330% year-over-year.

The strategic importance of Agentforce cannot be overstated. Unlike the first wave of “copilots” which acted as simple assistants, Salesforce’s agents are designed to be autonomous, taking actions directly within the CRM workflow. This is not just a technological shift; it is a business model shift. Salesforce is moving toward a consumption-based model, where customers pay for tokens and successful agent completions. In Q3 alone, Agentforce processed over 3.2 trillion tokens.

This change in the billing mechanism is a direct response to the market’s concern that AI would cannibalize traditional seat-based licensing. Instead, Agentforce is creating a new, incremental revenue stream. CEO Marc Benioff noted that 50% of Agentforce and Data 360 bookings in the third quarter came from expansion within existing accounts, proving that the world’s largest companies are doubling down on the Salesforce ecosystem to power their AI strategies.

Data 360 and Informatica: Building the Foundation for AI

For any AI agent to be effective, it requires high-quality, real-time data. This is where Salesforce’s Data Cloud (Data 360) and its recent acquisition of Informatica come into play. During the quarter, Data 360 ingested 32 trillion records—a 119% increase year-over-year. The adoption of “Zero Copy” architecture, which allows Salesforce to access data in external lakes (like Snowflake or Databricks) without moving it, grew even faster at 341%.

The completion of the Informatica acquisition on November 18, 2025, is a strategic masterstroke that will likely impact future CRM stock price performance positively. Informatica’s industry-leading data integration and governance capabilities allow Salesforce to clean and organize enterprise data at a scale that was previously impossible. Management expects the Informatica integration to contribute approximately 80 basis points to total revenue growth in the coming quarters. By owning the data “plumbing,” Salesforce ensures that its AI agents are the most accurate and trustworthy in the enterprise market.

Capital Allocation: A Shareholder-Friendly Pivot

In addition to its technological transformation, Salesforce has transformed its relationship with shareholders. During the third quarter, the company returned $4.2 billion to investors, comprising $3.8 billion in share repurchases and $395 million in dividends. This level of capital return is a relatively new phenomenon for Salesforce, which for years focused almost exclusively on growth and M&A.

This shift toward capital returns has created a “floor” for the CRM stock price. With a modest dividend yield of approximately 0.64% and a low payout ratio of 22%, Salesforce has significant room to grow its dividend as it continues to generate massive amounts of cash. In Q3, operating cash flow reached $2.3 billion, up 17%, while free cash flow (FCF) rose 22% to $2.2 billion. This “cash machine” status is a key reason why institutional accumulation of the stock has picked up pace in late 2025.

Market Outlook and CRM Stock Price Trajectory

As of January 12, 2026, CRM stock is trading at approximately $259.94. Following the December 3rd report, the stock experienced a relief rally, breaking out of a 2025 consolidation phase. The market appears to have largely moved past the “AI disruption fears” that plagued the stock earlier in the year, refocusing on the company’s ability to maintain high double-digit FCF growth.

Current analyst consensus for the CRM stock price remains overwhelmingly positive. Out of 34 analysts covering the stock, the consensus rating is a “Buy,” with an average price target of approximately $323.88. This implies a potential upside of over 24% from current levels. The more bullish analysts on Wall Street point to a target as high as $405, citing the potential for Agentforce to re-accelerate total revenue growth back into the 12-15% range by 2027.

Technically, the stock is showing signs of a long-term bottom. After testing support near the $225 level multiple times in 2025, the post-earnings “green candle” on December 3rd cleared critical resistance at the $240 and $250 levels. While the Relative Strength Index (RSI) sits at 60.94—suggesting the stock is becoming “warm”—it is not yet in overbought territory, leaving room for further appreciation in early 2026.

Guidance Raise: Confidence in a Growing Pipeline

Management’s confidence was best reflected in their updated guidance. Salesforce raised its full-year fiscal 2026 revenue forecast to a range of $41.45 billion to $41.55 billion, up from its previous guidance. They also initiated fourth-quarter guidance projecting revenue of $11.13 billion to $11.23 billion, which represents a sequential acceleration in growth to 11-12%.

This acceleration is the “holy grail” for investors in CRM stock. If Salesforce can prove that its revenue growth is bottoming out and beginning to tick upward thanks to Agentforce and Informatica, the stock’s valuation multiple (currently at a reasonable forward P/E of ~20x) is likely to expand. The company remains on track toward its goal of $60 billion in organic revenue by fiscal year 2030, a target that now seems increasingly achievable as the consumption-based AI model begins to scale.

Strategic Conclusion: The Verdict on Salesforce

The December 3rd CRM Financial Report was a pivotal moment for Salesforce. It demonstrated that the company has successfully survived the “efficiency” era and is now entering the “AI value” era. By doubling down on autonomous agents and the underlying data layer, Salesforce has reinforced its moat as the indispensable operating system for the modern enterprise.

While macroeconomic headwinds and competition from hyperscalers like Microsoft and Google remain risks, Salesforce’s vertical integration of data (Informatica), workflow (CRM), and intelligence (Agentforce) creates a value proposition that is difficult to replicate. For the CRM stock price to reach the $300+ level, the company must continue to show high “refill” rates for its AI tokens and maintain its disciplined approach to margins. Given the current trajectory, the “Agentic Enterprise” isn’t just a marketing slogan; it is the financial engine that will drive Salesforce’s next decade of dominance.

As we navigate the second week of January 2026, the narrative surrounding AMZN stock has shifted from a story of post-pandemic recovery to one of structural AI dominance. Amazon.com, Inc. enters the new year following a 2025 characterized by historic margin expansion and a re-invigoration of its cloud computing segment. For global investors tracking the Amazon stock price, the central question is no longer about the saturation of e-commerce, but rather how deeply the company can integrate “Agentic AI” into the fabric of global trade and enterprise infrastructure.

Financial Resilience: A Masterclass in Operational Leverage

The financial architecture of Amazon in early 2026 reflects a company that has successfully decoupled its profit growth from its capital intensity. According to the company’s comprehensive third-quarter 2025 results, net sales reached a staggering $180.2 billion, representing a 13% increase year-over-year. More impressively, the company’s net income for the same period surged to $21.2 billion, or $1.95 per diluted share—a figure that significantly outpaced the $15.3 billion reported in the prior-year period.

A critical metric for those monitoring AMZN stock is the performance of the Amazon Web Services (AWS) segment. In the latter half of 2025, AWS experienced a powerful re-acceleration, delivering $33 billion in quarterly revenue—its fastest growth rate since 2022. Operating income for the cloud division hit $11.4 billion, demonstrating that Amazon can maintain high-double-digit margins even as it pours tens of billions into H100 and B200 GPU infrastructure.

As of January 9, 2026, the Amazon stock price closed at $247.34, representing a market capitalization of approximately $2.64 trillion. While the stock faced a brief period of consolidation in late 2025, it enters the new year with a robust price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of approximately 35x, which many analysts view as attractive given the company’s projected 2026 earnings per share (EPS) of $7.85—a jump of nearly 10% from the previous year.

The AI Frontier: Agentic Workloads and Custom Silicon

Strategic planning at Amazon in 2026 is dominated by “The Agentic Shift.” During the Q3 2025 earnings call, CEO Andy Jassy highlighted that the company’s AI backlog has surpassed $200 billion, driven by enterprise demand for generative AI applications that do more than summarize text—they execute tasks.

Key product and business developments include:

The OpenAI-AWS Alliance: In late 2025, Amazon announced a historic $38 billion strategic partnership with OpenAI. Under this agreement, OpenAI will utilize hundreds of thousands of state-of-the-art NVIDIA GPUs within AWS infrastructure to scale “agentic” workloads, with all capacity targeted to be deployed by the end of 2026. This move effectively positions AWS as the “backbone” of the most advanced AI models in existence.
Next-Gen Custom Silicon: Amazon’s “Trainium 2” and “Inferentia 3” chips are now entering mass deployment. By providing a cost-effective alternative to NVIDIA’s hardware, Amazon is shielding its margins while offering customers up to a 50% improvement in price-performance for AI inference.
Zoox and the Autonomous Pivot: 2026 marks the commercial debut of Zoox robotaxis in Las Vegas and the San Francisco Bay Area. Unlike delivery-focused robotics, Zoox is a “passenger-first” service with a driverless, steering-wheel-free design, representing Amazon’s entry into the high-margin autonomous mobility market.

Advertising and Marketplace: The $60 Billion Silent Engine

While retail remains the most visible part of the brand, 2025 proved that the company’s true economic engine is its advertising business. Now exceeding $60 billion in annualized revenue, Amazon’s ad segment is outpacing its retail and subscription growth. The driver is the “Prime Video” pivot—where an ad-supported tier became the default for millions of users, creating immediate scale for connected TV (CTV) advertisers.

For investors analyzing Amazon stock, the efficiency of this segment is unparalleled. Because Amazon sits at the point of purchase, its “Sponsored Products” and “Click-to-Message” ads provide higher conversion rates than those of traditional social media platforms. In 2026, the company is further expanding its “Amazon Pharmacy” and “Grocery” integrations, creating a holistic ecosystem where the consumer never has to leave the Prime environment.

Market Expansion and Geopolitical Strategy

Market expansion for AMZN stock in 2026 is focused on “Sovereign Cloud” and “Grocery Density.” In Europe and the Middle East, AWS is launching localized data residency solutions to comply with tightening data sovereignty laws, ensuring it remains the partner of choice for national governments.

Domestically, the expansion of Amazon’s physical grocery footprint—both through Whole Foods and “Amazon Fresh” same-day delivery—is a core priority. The goal is to capture the “perishable” market, which remains the final frontier of e-commerce. By offering same-day delivery for fresh produce in over 2,000 cities by late 2026, Amazon aims to increase the frequency of Prime interactions from once-a-week to once-a-day.

Important Events and 2026 Outlook

Several catalysts are expected to define the trajectory of the Amazon stock price over the coming months:

Q4 2025 Earnings Report (Late January 2026): This will reveal the full impact of the 2025 holiday season and the initial scaling of the OpenAI partnership.
Prime Subscription Price Adjustments: Analysts are widely anticipating a potential increase in Prime membership fees in mid-2026, which could provide a significant boost to the company’s bottom line without impacting retention, given the “stickiness” of the service.
Regulatory Milestones: Amazon continues to navigate a legal settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which resulted in a $2.5 billion charge in late 2025. Moving past these regulatory overhangs is essential for the stock’s re-rating toward the $300 level.

Looking ahead, the consensus among Wall Street analysts—including firms like Jefferies and Wolfe Research—is overwhelmingly bullish, with price targets ranging from $275 to $360. As the company enters 2026 with fresh momentum and multiple levers for growth across cloud, AI, and advertising, it appears that “Amazon’s Next Chapter” is one of accelerated intelligence and unprecedented scale.