Mizuho Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Stock

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) had its price objective lifted by equities research analysts at Mizuho from $250.00 to $265.00 in a note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “outperform” rating on the CRM provider’s stock. Mizuho’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 5.67% from the company’s current price.

Several other equities analysts have also recently commented on CRM. Piper Sandler cut shares of Salesforce from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Phillip Securities lowered shares of Salesforce from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $253.00 to $166.00 in a research report on Monday, June 29th. Wedbush initiated coverage on shares of Salesforce in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. They set an “outperform” rating for the company. Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Wolfe Research downgraded shares of Salesforce from an “outperform” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have issued a Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Salesforce has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $260.03.

Salesforce Stock Up 22.0%

CRM traded up $45.15 during trading on Thursday, hitting $250.77. 42,616,057 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 13,812,743. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15. The business’s 50 day moving average is $177.13 and its two-hundred day moving average is $181.60. Salesforce has a fifty-two week low of $146.32 and a fifty-two week high of $269.11. The stock has a market cap of $205.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.04, a PEG ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 1.16.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.27 by $2.63. Salesforce had a net margin of 18.73% and a return on equity of 18.72%. The company had revenue of $11.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.33 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.91 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 16.670-16.710 EPS and its Q3 2027 guidance at 3.420-3.440 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Salesforce will post 10.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Salesforce

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. California State Teachers Retirement System grew its stake in shares of Salesforce by 13,260.5% in the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 188,085,056 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $29,465,405,000 after buying an additional 186,677,290 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the second quarter worth $11,396,844,000. State Street Corp grew its stake 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 worth $13,286,909,000 after acquiring an additional 659,573 shares during the last quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP increased its holdings 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 valued at $12,552,896,000 after acquiring an additional 47,189,352 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors raised its position in shares of 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. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Key Salesforce News

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce reported adjusted Q2 earnings of $5.90 per share, well above the $3.27 consensus estimate, while revenue increased 10.8% year over year to $11.35 billion, slightly ahead of expectations. Salesforce Stock Soars After Strong Results, Raised Outlook
• Positive Sentiment: Management raised fiscal 2027 guidance to $46.1 billion–$46.4 billion in revenue and $16.67–$16.71 in EPS. Q3 EPS guidance of $3.42–$3.44 also exceeded the $3.16 analyst consensus, reinforcing expectations for improving growth and profitability. Salesforce Raises Annual Revenue Forecasts on AI Product Momentum
• Positive Sentiment: Underlying demand indicators were encouraging: current remaining performance obligations accelerated 14% in constant currency, free cash flow grew 81%, and Agentforce and Data 360 annual recurring revenue approached $3.9 billion. Agentforce ARR alone reached approximately $1.5 billion, suggesting customers are moving beyond AI experimentation. Salesforce Q2 Results and the SaaSpocalypse Bear Case
• Positive Sentiment: The expanded Anthropic relationship, branded “Claudeforce,” integrates Claude with Salesforce’s CRM data, workflows, governance, and Agentforce tools. Investors view the partnership as evidence that Salesforce can monetize AI rather than be displaced by it. Salesforce and Anthropic Announce Claudeforce
• Neutral Sentiment: Analysts broadly raised price targets, including Truist at $300 and Needham at $400, although several firms retained neutral or underperform ratings with targets below the current trading level. Salesforce Analyst Target Changes
• Negative Sentiment: Reported profit benefited materially from approximately $2.6 billion in gains on strategic investments, including its Anthropic stake. That makes the earnings beat less representative of recurring operating performance and could temper enthusiasm if investors focus on the one-time benefit. Salesforce Stock Jumps on AI Growth and Investment Gain

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.