Stifel Nicolaus Lowers Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Price Target to $250.00

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) had its target price cut by stock analysts at Stifel Nicolaus from $300.00 to $250.00 in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “buy” rating on the CRM provider’s stock. Stifel Nicolaus’ price objective indicates a potential upside of 26.45% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other analysts also recently commented on CRM. DA Davidson upped their price target on shares of Salesforce from $225.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, December 5th. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their target price on shares of Salesforce from $250.00 to $290.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Monday, January 5th. Guggenheim reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, December 4th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $281.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have assigned a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $296.86.

Salesforce Stock Performance

Shares of Salesforce stock traded up $5.96 on Thursday, hitting $197.71. The stock had a trading volume of 7,322,320 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,901,356. The stock has a market cap of $185.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.40, a P/E/G ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. Salesforce has a 52-week low of $174.57 and a 52-week high of $304.92. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $226.45 and its 200 day moving average price is $238.86.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.05 by $0.76. The company had revenue of $11.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.18 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 14.41% and a net margin of 17.91%.The firm’s revenue was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.78 earnings per share. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 13.110-13.190 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.110-3.130 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Salesforce will post 7.46 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Salesforce news, insider Parker Harris sold 134,662 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $234.70, for a total transaction of $31,605,171.40. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 139,767 shares in the company, valued at approximately $32,803,314.90. The trade was a 49.07% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 1,936 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 17th. The stock was bought at an average price of $258.64 per share, with a total value of $500,727.04. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 10,677 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,761,499.28. This trade represents a 22.15% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. 3.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC purchased a new position in Salesforce in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund acquired a new stake in Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Key Capital Management INC purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Gilpin Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth $26,000. Finally, Evolution Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the 2nd quarter worth about $27,000. 80.43% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Salesforce News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q4 beat and robust EPS guidance — Salesforce reported a Q4 EPS beat with revenue up ~12% and issued FY27 EPS guidance (13.110–13.190) and Q1 EPS guidance (3.110–3.130) that were above Street expectations, supporting momentum in the print. Salesforce Q4 Earnings Beat
• Positive Sentiment: Large $50B buyback announced — management committed to a $50 billion repurchase program, a material capital-return signal that typically supports near-term share price by reducing float and showing confidence from the board. CNBC Buyback Article
• Positive Sentiment: Dividend increase — Salesforce raised its quarterly dividend to $0.44 (up from $0.42), modestly improving yield and reinforcing shareholder returns as part of the capital allocation story.
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst price-target moves are mixed — BMO trimmed its PT to $225 but kept an Outperform rating (still implying upside), and KeyCorp lowered a prior target but remains overweight; analysts are split between seeing long-term upside and short-term risk.
• Neutral Sentiment: Market-wide digesting of megacap earnings — broader futures and index moves are muted as markets parse results from Nvidia and Salesforce along with macro prints, so sector sentiment is a relevant offset. Proactive: Futures Digest
• Negative Sentiment: Guidance and AI fears created dovish reaction — some coverage notes revenue guidance was slightly softer than some expectations and investor concern about AI-driven disruption to SaaS persists; that narrative pressured shares in after-hours trading for a time. Proactive: Softer Guidance Reaction
• Negative Sentiment: Citi keeps a Hold and conservative PT — Citi maintained a Hold with a ~$197 target, signaling that at least some Street participants view near-term upside as limited absent clearer evidence AI monetization and revenue acceleration are durable. TipRanks / Citi Note

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.