Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Price Target Lowered to $194.00 at Sanford C. Bernstein

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) had its price objective cut by Sanford C. Bernstein from $223.00 to $194.00 in a research note published on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have an underperform rating on the CRM provider’s stock.

A number of other analysts also recently issued reports on the stock. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $250.00 price objective (down from $280.00) on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday. Guggenheim reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Salesforce from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 28th. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of Salesforce from $398.00 to $287.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Finally, Bank of America cut their price objective on Salesforce from $325.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, November 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have issued a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $284.06.

Salesforce Price Performance

Salesforce stock opened at $199.38 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The company has a market cap of $186.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.53, a PEG ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.27. Salesforce has a 12 month low of $174.57 and a 12 month high of $304.92. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $225.28 and its 200 day simple moving average is $238.59.

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

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.44 per share. This is an increase from Salesforce’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 9th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is currently 22.16%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director David Blair Kirk bought 1,936 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 17th. The shares were bought at an average price of $258.64 per share, for a total transaction of $500,727.04. Following the purchase, the director owned 10,677 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,761,499.28. The trade was a 22.15% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Neelie Kroes sold 3,893 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $238.70, for a total value of $929,259.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 7,299 shares in the company, valued at $1,742,271.30. The trade was a 34.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 3.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of CRM. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Salesforce by 0.3% in 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 during the period. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 50,080,230 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $13,286,909,000 after buying an additional 659,573 shares during the period. J. Stern & Co. LLP lifted its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 47,189,352 shares during the period. Capital International Investors boosted its stake 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 valued at $6,019,199,000 after purchasing an additional 2,669,891 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position 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 valued at $5,751,073,000 after acquiring an additional 791,345 shares in the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Salesforce News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q4 results showed a big non‑GAAP EPS beat and double‑digit revenue growth, with Agentforce cited as a key growth driver — the earnings strength is the main bullish catalyst. Salesforce Crushed Earnings by 25% and Still Can’t Get Any Respect
• Positive Sentiment: Management authorized a $50 billion buyback, raised FY30 revenue ambition to ~$63B and increased the quarterly dividend — these capital‑return moves support EPS per‑share upside and signal confidence from the board. Salesforce targets $63B revenue by FY30 while expanding Agentforce and $50B buyback
• Positive Sentiment: Some brokers (e.g., Wedbush) reiterated bullish views and called CRM a long‑term AI winner, supporting a recovery narrative despite the recent sell‑off. Salesforce Stock Climbs After Earnings. Wedbush Calls It ‘Long-Term Winner’ of the AI Boom
• Neutral Sentiment: Wall Street reacted with many price‑target resets — several firms trimmed targets but maintained Buy/Overweight ratings, leaving consensus upside but also a wider target dispersion to watch. Salesforce’s AI Bet Is Paying Off—the Buyback Proves It
• Negative Sentiment: Revenue outlook/near‑term guidance was viewed as soft by some investors — the quarter’s guidance cadence (mid‑year weakness) pressured shares in after‑hours trading. Salesforce tops Q4 estimates but softer revenue guidance pressures shares
• Negative Sentiment: Analysts flagged mixed cloud momentum and cautioned on a near‑term growth slowdown even as AI adoption builds — raises the risk of cyclical softness before the AI inflection fully materializes. Salesforce faces near-term growth slowdown as AI inflection builds, Jefferies says
• Negative Sentiment: Several firms cut price targets (examples include Sanford Bernstein’s move to Underperform and multiple downward adjustments across banks), which can cap near‑term upside until guidance clarity improves. Analyst price target updates

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.