Phillip Securities Downgrades Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) to Neutral

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) was downgraded by research analysts at Phillip Securities from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note issued to investors on Monday,MarketScreener reports. They presently have a $166.00 price target on the CRM provider’s stock, down from their previous price target of $253.00. Phillip Securities’ price objective would indicate a potential upside of 4.91% from the stock’s current price.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. KeyCorp dropped their target price on Salesforce from $300.00 to $290.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Tuesday, June 16th. HC Wainwright cut Salesforce to a “negative” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. B. Riley Financial increased their price objective on Salesforce from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, HSBC lifted their price objective on Salesforce from $350.00 to $356.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have given a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $255.14.

Salesforce Trading Down 0.1%

Shares of Salesforce stock opened at $158.23 on Monday. Salesforce has a 52-week low of $146.32 and a 52-week high of $276.80. The firm has a market capitalization of $129.59 billion, a PE ratio of 18.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $175.56 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $200.79.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.13 by $0.75. The company had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.05 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 18.73% and a return on equity of 18.72%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.58 EPS. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 14.060-14.120 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 3.250-3.270 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Salesforce will post 10.29 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce declared that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Monday, March 16th that allows the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the CRM provider to buy up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 89,843,166 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $23,800,353,000 after purchasing an additional 270,913 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 50,080,230 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $13,286,909,000 after purchasing an additional 659,573 shares in the last quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP raised its position in Salesforce by 24,056.7% in the 4th 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 last quarter. Capital International Investors raised its position in Salesforce by 13.3% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 22,721,010 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $6,019,199,000 after purchasing an additional 2,669,891 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Salesforce by 3.8% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 21,782,556 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $5,751,073,000 after buying an additional 791,345 shares in the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Salesforce

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.