Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Issues Q1 2027 Earnings Guidance

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) issued an update on its first quarter 2027 earnings guidance on Wednesday morning. The company provided earnings per share guidance of 3.110-3.130 for the period, compared to the consensus earnings per share estimate of 2.670. The company issued revenue guidance of $11.0 billion-$11.1 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $11.0 billion. Salesforce also updated its FY 2027 guidance to 13.110-13.190 EPS.

Salesforce Price Performance

CRM stock traded down $4.54 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $194.93. 9,022,056 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 12,429,802. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $225.28 and a 200 day moving average price of $238.59. Salesforce has a 52 week low of $174.57 and a 52 week high of $303.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.98. The stock has a market capitalization of $182.65 billion, a PE ratio of 24.96, a P/E/G ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.27.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.05 by $0.76. Salesforce had a return on equity of 15.28% and a net margin of 17.96%.The company had revenue of $11.20 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.18 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.78 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 13.110-13.190 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.110-3.130 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Salesforce will post 7.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 9th will be issued a $0.44 dividend. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 9th. This is a positive change from Salesforce’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. Salesforce’s payout ratio is 22.16%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CRM has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $265.00 to $252.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Monday, December 29th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on shares of Salesforce from $300.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $375.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. Finally, Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $375.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a report on Tuesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $284.06.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Parker Harris sold 134,662 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $234.70, for a total value of $31,605,171.40. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 139,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $32,803,314.90. The trade was a 49.07% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director David Blair Kirk bought 1,936 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 17th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $258.64 per share, for a total transaction of $500,727.04. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 10,677 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,761,499.28. This represents a 22.15% increase in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. 3.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Key Stories Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q4 beat and margin/earnings upside — Salesforce reported $3.81 non‑GAAP EPS (well above consensus) and ~12% revenue growth, showing improving profitability that supports the stock. After a Brutal Selloff, Are These 3 SaaS Giants About to Bounce?
• Positive Sentiment: Capital return program is sizeable — management authorized a $50 billion buyback and raised the quarterly dividend, which reduces share count and signals confidence from the board. Salesforce’s AI Bet Is Paying Off—the Buyback Proves It
• Positive Sentiment: AI monetization traction (Agentforce) — management highlighted early commercial progress with its Agentforce/agentic AI roadmap, giving bulls a concrete revenue path from AI rather than purely a cost/competition story. Nvidia’s blowout results and Salesforce’s Agentforce progress signal the AI software selloff has gone too far, says Wedbush
• Neutral Sentiment: Guidance mixed — FY2027 EPS guidance was strong, but revenue pacing and quarterly cadence left investors wanting more; the company guided to steady growth rather than an acceleration, creating an ambiguous near‑term picture. Salesforce forecasts quarterly revenue above estimates
• Neutral Sentiment: Analysts split — some firms (e.g., Wedbush) remain strongly bullish and raised targets, while others trimmed targets but mostly kept buy/outperform stances; consensus still implies material upside but dispersion increased. After a Brutal Selloff, Are These 3 SaaS Giants About to Bounce?
• Negative Sentiment: AI “ghost trade” and sector sentiment — durable fears that foundation models will disintermediate enterprise software have pressured CRM multiples and prompted a broad SaaS selloff, weighing on Salesforce despite company‑level positives. Nvidia’s blowout results and Salesforce’s Agentforce progress signal the AI software selloff has gone too far, says Wedbush
• Negative Sentiment: Near‑term growth signals below high expectations — some metrics (cRPO growth, revenue pacing) were only in line with guidance, prompting several price‑target cuts and at least one underperform from Bernstein; that trimmed immediate investor enthusiasm. Salesforce’s AI Bet Is Paying Off—the Buyback Proves It

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Salesforce

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 13.7% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 25,668 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $8,582,000 after purchasing an additional 3,102 shares in the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Salesforce by 12.6% during the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,827 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $611,000 after acquiring an additional 205 shares in the last quarter. Bison Wealth LLC raised its stake in shares of Salesforce by 9.0% in the 4th quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 2,234 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $747,000 after purchasing an additional 184 shares during the period. Sivia Capital Partners LLC raised its holdings in Salesforce by 3.7% during the second quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,958 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $807,000 after acquiring an additional 106 shares in the last quarter. Finally, United Bank increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 5.2% in the second quarter. United Bank now owns 10,198 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $2,781,000 after purchasing an additional 500 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Company Profile

Salesforce, founded in 1999 and headquartered in San Francisco, is a global provider of cloud-based software focused on customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise applications. The company popularized the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model for CRM and has built a broad portfolio of products designed to help organizations manage sales, service, marketing, commerce and analytics through a unified, cloud-first platform.

Core offerings include Sales Cloud for sales automation, Service Cloud for customer support, Marketing Cloud for digital marketing and engagement, and Commerce Cloud for e-commerce.