Salesforce Inc shares rose 4.2% in morning trading Tuesday after Bank of America upgraded the stock two levels from Underperform to Buy and raised its price target to $285 from $160.

The move represents one of the largest single-step rating changes on Wall Street this year. Analyst Tal Liani reversed his previous position, stating that large enterprises are unlikely to replace mission-critical platforms that contain their business logic, workflows, and compliance frameworks. He added that "AI should deepen dependence on these platforms."

The company also announced a deal to acquire Loops, an Israeli AI analytics startup, for about $30 million. The transaction is expected to close in early November.

Salesforce plans to integrate Loops' AI-powered analytics capabilities into its Tableau product to help enterprise customers identify performance drivers more effectively.

The acquisition supports the company's Agentforce strategy. That product's annual recurring revenue has exceeded $1.5 billion, up more than 240% year over year.