Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) Receives $279.18 Consensus Target Price from Brokerages

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) has received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the thirty-nine research firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating, twenty-six have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $279.1765.

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on CRM shares. Northland Securities cut their price objective on Salesforce from $267.00 to $229.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 10th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on Salesforce from $235.00 to $225.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. KeyCorp cut their price objective on Salesforce from $400.00 to $300.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 24th. TD Cowen cut their price objective on Salesforce from $325.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, Barclays cut their price objective on Salesforce from $265.00 to $252.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 26th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Salesforce

In other news, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 2,570 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were bought at an average price of $194.62 per share, with a total value of $500,173.40. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 13,689 shares in the company, valued at $2,664,153.18. The trade was a 23.11% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Laura Alber acquired 2,571 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 19th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $194.58 per share, for a total transaction of $500,265.18. Following the acquisition, the director owned 9,530 shares in the company, valued at $1,854,347.40. This represents a 36.94% increase in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Company insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. J. Stern & Co. LLP lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 24,056.7% during the fourth quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 47,385,511 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $12,552,896,000 after acquiring an additional 47,189,352 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the fourth quarter worth $3,182,951,000. Capital World Investors lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 159.0% during the third quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 17,325,206 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $4,106,255,000 after acquiring an additional 10,636,161 shares in the last quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 924.7% during the fourth quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 3,883,610 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $1,028,807,000 after acquiring an additional 3,504,605 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 13.3% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 22,721,010 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $6,019,199,000 after acquiring an additional 2,669,891 shares in the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Salesforce Stock Up 2.2%

Shares of Salesforce stock opened at $186.10 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 0.76 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The company has a market capitalization of $152.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.29. Salesforce has a 1 year low of $163.52 and a 1 year high of $296.05. The business has a 50-day moving average of $187.71 and a two-hundred day moving average of $223.59.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.05 by $0.76. Salesforce had a return on equity of 15.38% and a net margin of 17.96%.The business had revenue of $11.20 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.18 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.78 earnings per share. Salesforce’s quarterly revenue was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. 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, equities analysts predict that Salesforce will post 9.71 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce declared that its board has approved a share buyback program on Monday, March 16th that authorizes the company to buyback $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the CRM provider to reacquire up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.44 per share. This is a boost from Salesforce’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 9th. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.9%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is 22.54%.

Salesforce News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: CEO Marc Benioff says AI creates more opportunity than threat and that SaaS replacement fears are overblown — helping calm investors worried about churn. Marc Benioff Says the Software Bears Are All Wrong About Salesforce
• Positive Sentiment: Management is publicly framing AI as a revenue accelerator for SaaS, saying AI will create new product and sales motion opportunities rather than simply displace subscriptions. Salesforce CEO says in interview SaaS not dead as AI creates opportunities
• Positive Sentiment: Traders are responding to management’s AI demonstrations — Benzinga cites Agentforce and “Agenticware” updates as reasons for intraday buying. Why Is Salesforce Stock Charging Higher On Monday?
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce announced a sizable AI initiative called “Headless 360,” signaling product road‑map investment that could support long‑term ARR expansion. Salesforce Announces Huge AI Initiative and Calls It ‘Headless 360’
• Positive Sentiment: Large investors are adding to AI bets and reports show Bridgewater/Ray Dalio has meaningful exposure to Salesforce, which can boost investor confidence. Billionaire Ray Dalio Is Betting Big on These 4 AI Stocks
• Neutral Sentiment: General investor interest in CRM remains high and analysts are debating valuation and risk/reward; Zacks flags both attention and the need to weigh fundamentals vs. AI disruption. Is Most-Watched Stock Salesforce, Inc. (CRM) Worth Betting on Now?
• Negative Sentiment: Coverage highlights that CRM is down materially YTD (reports cite ~30% YTD) as investors fear AI could undermine traditional subscription revenue models. Salesforce (CRM) Stock Plunges 30% YTD as AI Threatens Traditional SaaS Revenue Model
• Negative Sentiment: Market commentary warns investors to trim software exposure amid the Nasdaq rally, calling out potential downside for software names like Salesforce if AI pressures margins/renewals. The Nasdaq’s Historic Rally Doesn’t Mean the Risk Is Gone (CRM)

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.