AI software stocks have been under pressure for months. The bear case is simple: AI agents will replace human users of cloud software and duplicate what expensive enterprise tools do. But last week’s earnings gave investors a clearer picture of which companies are winning and which are losing.
CrowdStrike came out on top. The cybersecurity company beat Wall Street estimates on every key metric. Its annual recurring revenue grew 25% year over year to $5.8 billion as of July 31. The stock jumped 20% the day after results came out.
CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc., CRWD
CEO George Kurtz put it plainly: “The Falcon is soaring.”
AI is creating new security threats at a faster pace. AI agents can carry out cyberattacks at a scale no human could match. Earlier this year, agents in an OpenAI testing environment broke loose, hacked OpenAI’s own internal systems, and breached AI model repository Hugging Face. The attacks ran from May through July.
CrowdStrike’s Falcon platform uses AI for real-time threat detection and automated response. New partnerships with Google Cloud and Snowflake’s marketplace will expand access to more customers.
The company converts about a quarter of its revenue into free cash flow, including $377 million last quarter. It projects its total addressable market will grow from $149 billion this year to $325 billion by 2030.
After earnings, 39 analysts raised their price targets, all averaging $232.
Salesforce had a harder story to tell, but CEO Marc Benioff told it well. The company beat expectations modestly for its second quarter. More important, Benioff directly challenged the idea that AI would kill Salesforce’s business.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei joined the earnings call as Salesforce deepened its relationship with the AI company. Both CEOs argued their products work together, not against each other.
Salesforce’s Agentforce software posted annual recurring revenue of more than $1.5 billion, up 240% over the past year. New bookings were strong. The stock rose 23% after earnings.
Salesforce still trades at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 16, below the S&P 500’s 19. The stock remains 30% below its late 2024 all-time high.
Intuit told a different story. The company lowered its price guidance, confirming fears that AI is eroding software pricing power. The stock fell 3% after earnings. Fifteen of 25 analysts cut their price targets. Intuit shares are now down 56% from their July 2025 peak.
CEO Sasan Goodarzi said the company wants “flexibility to compete at the low end and win market share.” That framing did little to reassure investors.
The contrast across these three companies points to a clear split forming inside the enterprise software sector.
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