Salesforce’s (CRM) “Underperform” Rating Reiterated at Bank of America

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM)‘s stock had its “underperform” rating reissued by equities research analysts at Bank of America in a research note issued to investors on Monday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $160.00 price objective on the CRM provider’s stock. Bank of America‘s target price suggests a potential downside of 7.93% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other research firms also recently issued reports on CRM. Citigroup cut their target price on shares of Salesforce from $200.00 to $188.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $281.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $265.00 to $252.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Northland Securities reduced their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $267.00 to $229.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 10th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of Salesforce from $398.00 to $287.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have given a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $274.56.

Salesforce Stock Performance

NYSE CRM opened at $173.77 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $142.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.25, a PEG ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a 50 day moving average of $184.17 and a 200-day moving average of $215.37. 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 has a 1-year low of $163.52 and a 1-year high of $292.17.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its earnings results 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 company had revenue of $11.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.18 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 15.38% and a net margin of 17.96%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last 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, equities analysts forecast that Salesforce will post 9.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback plan on Monday, March 16th that permits the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the CRM provider to buy up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Salesforce news, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 2,570 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $194.62 per share, with a total value of $500,173.40. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 13,689 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,664,153.18. This represents a 23.11% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Laura Alber purchased 2,571 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 19th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $194.58 per share, with a total value of $500,265.18. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 9,530 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,854,347.40. The trade was a 36.94% increase in their position. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. Insiders own 3.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Salesforce

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth approximately $25,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund bought a new position in Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Key Capital Management INC bought a new position in Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Gilpin Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Salesforce during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Finally, Legacy Bridge LLC bought a new stake in Salesforce during the fourth quarter worth $27,000. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

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.