For much of the last decade, Salesforce (NYSE: CRM) co-founder and CEO Marc Benioff has been talking about becoming "one of the largest enterprise software companies in the world." Mission success. Salesforce is No. 3, behind much-older industry titans Microsoft and Oracle.

Salesforce's rapid growth, spurred on by a seemingly endless string of acquisitions, served its purpose for the time. The cloud software movement that Salesforce pioneered was white-hot in the 2010s. A never-ending line of start-ups fueled by venture capital money struck out to lay claim to the growing industry, and Salesforce purchased its fair share of them to bolster its status as a platform and to stave off future competition.

But times change. The software boom is over for now, and investors are demanding better profit margins rather than all-out growth. Salesforce has successfully made the pivot. After rallying 90% through the first 11 months of 2023, is the stock still a buy for 2024?

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Source Fool.com