Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Price Target Cut to $173.00 by Analysts at Sanford C. Bernstein

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) had its price objective reduced by equities research analysts at Sanford C. Bernstein from $194.00 to $173.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “underperform” rating on the CRM provider’s stock. Sanford C. Bernstein’s price target suggests a potential downside of 3.81% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other equities analysts also recently issued reports on CRM. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $400.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Citizens Jmp reiterated a “market outperform” rating and set a $315.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday. KeyCorp cut their target price on Salesforce from $300.00 to $290.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their target price on Salesforce from $398.00 to $287.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have given a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Salesforce presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $261.71.

Salesforce Stock Up 1.3%

Salesforce stock traded up $2.34 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $179.85. The stock had a trading volume of 13,236,405 shares, compared to its average volume of 12,949,687. Salesforce has a 12 month low of $163.52 and a 12 month high of $276.80. The company has a market capitalization of $147.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.98, a PEG ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $181.23 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $211.16. The company has a current ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.13 by $0.75. Salesforce had a return on equity of 15.38% and a net margin of 17.96%.The business had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.05 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.58 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 14.060-14.120 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 3.250-3.270 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Salesforce will post 9.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce announced that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Monday, March 16th that authorizes the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the CRM provider to buy up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Laura Alber purchased 2,571 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 19th. The shares were bought at an average price of $194.58 per share, with a total value of $500,265.18. Following the acquisition, the director owned 9,530 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,854,347.40. This trade represents a 36.94% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 2,570 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $194.62 per share, for a total transaction of $500,173.40. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 13,689 shares in the company, valued at $2,664,153.18. This trade represents a 23.11% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders own 3.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Salesforce

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. J. Stern & Co. LLP increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 24,056.7% in 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 purchasing an additional 47,189,352 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Salesforce in the fourth quarter worth $3,182,951,000. Capital World Investors grew its position in Salesforce by 159.0% in 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. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its position in Salesforce by 130.2% in the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 12,659,217 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $2,363,096,000 after acquiring an additional 7,160,302 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cardano Risk Management B.V. grew its position in Salesforce by 924.7% in 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. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce reported first-quarter results that beat expectations on both earnings and revenue, with EPS of $3.88 versus $3.13 expected and revenue of $11.13 billion versus $11.05 billion forecast. Management also raised full-year profit guidance, which supports the stock. Reuters article
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce said Agentforce annualized revenue crossed the $1 billion mark, reinforcing investor interest in its AI strategy and showing that AI products are gaining traction. CNBC article
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce announced an expanded collaboration with CVS Health to use Agentforce Health to streamline call-center interactions for millions of members and providers, a potential validation of its AI offerings in a major enterprise customer. PR Newswire article
• Neutral Sentiment: Analysts largely kept bullish ratings in place after the report, including reaffirmed “outperform”/“overweight” calls from Wedbush, Piper Sandler, Citizens JMP and Cantor Fitzgerald, though several firms trimmed price targets, reflecting a more cautious near-term setup. Benzinga article
• Negative Sentiment: Investors remain focused on slower top-line trends and a slightly light revenue outlook for next quarter, which fed the “AI threat” narrative and helped explain why the stock did not get a bigger post-earnings lift. Stocktwits article

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.