Salesforce (CRM) stock slips after Momentum deal as Wall Street braces for earnings

Salesforce (CRM) stock slips after Momentum deal as Wall Street braces for earnings

February 19, 2026

New York, February 19, 2026, 12:41 ET — Regular session

  • Salesforce shares slipped roughly 1% by midday.
  • Company has inked a deal to buy Momentum, aiming to strengthen both Agentforce and Slackbot.
  • Eyes are on Feb. 25 results as investors hunt for evidence that AI products might drive growth.

Salesforce shares slipped roughly 1%, trading at $185.98 around midday Thursday. The company announced a definitive agreement to buy Momentum, a platform offering conversational insights and what it calls “revenue orchestration” — tools that let sales teams monitor and move deals along. The acquisition brings the ability to funnel unstructured voice and video data, like calls on Zoom and Google Meet, straight into Agentforce 360 and Slackbot. “We need visibility and context from every meaningful interaction,” said Steve Fisher, president and chief product officer at Salesforce. For his part, Momentum CEO Santiago Suarez Ordoñez said the deal will transform “static audio” into actionable intelligence for revenue teams. Salesforce

Just ahead of Salesforce’s fourth-quarter and full-year fiscal 2026 numbers—set to arrive Feb. 25 after the bell—the deal gets announced. The earnings call kicks off at 5 p.m. ET.

The timing is key: investors have shown little patience when software firms shift focus from revenue growth to higher spending, particularly in the AI sector. Thursday saw U.S. indexes edge lower, pressured by losses in financials and select tech stocks. Traders weighed whether the surge in AI outlays is delivering returns. “It’s just an over-reaction,” said Max Wasserman, who runs Miramar Capital as founder and senior portfolio manager. Reuters

Salesforce is betting that Momentum’s so-called “universal ingestion engine” can pull in customer conversations from a range of third-party voice and video platforms, giving its agents—those software tools that handle more than just simple queries—a richer context to work from. The deal is slated to wrap up in the first quarter of Salesforce’s fiscal 2027, pending the usual closing conditions. Salesforce

The stock finished Wednesday at $187.79, up 1.9% from Tuesday’s $184.29 close, Yahoo Finance historical data shows.

The Dow took a hit early Thursday, dragged lower by Salesforce and further pressured by Goldman Sachs, according to MarketWatch data.

Investors are after hard data. Next week, they’ll be tuning in to Salesforce for specifics on demand, sales cycles, and any sign that its newer AI offerings are shifting beyond pilot stage—into actual, reportable revenue.

Margins are in focus as well, with any tweaks to the company’s narrative around product development and acquisition spending likely to get a close look, especially as it moves further into “agentic” tools.

Still, there’s a risk baked in. Should buyers hit pause on software spending, or if AI tools fail to catch on beyond the buzz, Salesforce might have a tough time persuading investors that fresh deals actually mean real growth soon.

Salesforce is set to report earnings after Wednesday’s closing bell, with the conference call kicking off at 5 p.m. ET on Feb. 25.

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