Many software stocks have been hit hard in 2026, including Salesforce CRM, Atlassian TEAM, and Workday WDAY. Performance has been weighed down by a huge wave of negative sentiment surrounding AI-related concerns, specifically that their future growth will get negatively impacted.
But all three have bounced back in a big way over the past month, perhaps a reflection of sentiment finally shifting into a more constructive direction.
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It’s worthwhile to take a closer look at how earnings have been going for these companies, as it’ll at least give us a baseline of how their overall businesses are performing amid the wave of negative sentiment they’ve experienced.
Salesforce Reports Record Results
Through Agentforce, its suite of customizable agents and tools, Salesforce brings autonomous AI agents, unified data, and Customer 360 apps together on one integrated platform to help companies connect with customers in a whole new way.
The company posted record results in its latest release, with Agentforce and Data 360 annual recurring revenue growing by 200% YoY to nearly $3.4 billion. Its platform also delivered 3.8 billion Agentic Work Units, which are tasks completed by AI agents, growing 111% sequentially.
As reflected by the results, the company is actively benefiting from its own deployment of AI. EPS and sales revisions also reflect a high level of positivity, trending higher over recent months.
EPS revisions have been particularly bullish, with the stock sporting a favorable Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). The company also raised its current fiscal year sales guidance, further adding to the positivity.
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Workday Sees Continued Growth
Workday is a cloud-based software platform that helps organizations manage their Human Resources (HR), payroll, and financial operations. It uses embedded artificial intelligence to automate routine tasks, analyze workforce skills, and generate business forecasts.
Importantly, the number of customers using its AI agents more than doubled quarter-over-quarter in its latest release, with its overall subscription backlog seeing 11% YoY growth to $27.3 billion.
Management stated –
‘We had a great Q1, and it makes one thing clear: Workday is ready for this AI moment. Our core business is strong, our AI strategy is working, and we're moving with the speed and focus required to lead’.
While it’s expected for management to remain highly bullish in their comments, continued backlog growth and the growing adoption of its AI agents still help underpin the idea that its offerings remain attractive.
Sales growth has remained steadily strong, as shown below.
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Atlassian Posts Strong Cloud Growth
Atlassian is a leading provider of team collaboration and productivity software, increasingly embedding agentic AI across its platform to transform how enterprise teams work.
Like those above, the company posted solid growth in its latest quarterly release, with Cloud revenue of roughly $1 billion growing by 26% YoY. It also surpassed 3.5 million monthly active users of its AI capabilities, which reflected an impressive 50% sequential growth rate.
Sales growth has accelerated recently, as shown below.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
While growth and overall momentum seem to be intact, the company is currently a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell), with investors better off waiting until the ranking changes.
Putting Everything Together
While many software names, including Salesforce CRM, Atlassian TEAM, and Workday WDAY, remain deep in the red from a YTD standpoint, their performance over the past month has given some nice relief. A lot of negativity surrounding future growth fears has likely been priced in, but their discounted prices certainly make them stocks all worth keeping tabs on.
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).