Erste Group Bank Expects Increased Earnings for Salesforce

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) – Research analysts at Erste Group Bank lifted their FY2028 earnings per share (EPS) estimates for Salesforce in a report issued on Thursday, June 25th. Erste Group Bank analyst S. Lingnau now anticipates that the CRM provider will post earnings per share of $11.11 for the year, up from their previous forecast of $11.07. The consensus estimate for Salesforce’s current full-year earnings is $10.29 per share.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.13 by $0.75. Salesforce had a return on equity of 18.72% and a net margin of 18.73%.The firm had revenue of $11.13 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.05 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.58 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 14.060-14.120 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 3.250-3.270 EPS.

Other analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. HSBC increased their price target on shares of Salesforce from $350.00 to $356.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 29th. Phillip Securities downgraded shares of Salesforce from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $253.00 to $166.00 in a research note on Monday. Monness Crespi & Hardt upgraded shares of Salesforce from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $200.00 target price on the stock in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Bank of America started coverage on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Monday, May 18th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $160.00 price target for the company. Finally, Wolfe Research restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Monday, June 15th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have assigned a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $255.14.

Salesforce Stock Performance

NYSE CRM opened at $158.12 on Tuesday. 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 has a market cap of $129.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.30, a P/E/G ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.16. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $175.09 and a two-hundred day moving average of $200.07. Salesforce has a 1-year low of $146.32 and a 1-year high of $276.80.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Salesforce

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of CRM. J. Stern & Co. LLP lifted its holdings in Salesforce by 24,056.7% during 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 buying an additional 47,189,352 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce in the 4th quarter valued at about $3,182,951,000. Capital World Investors raised its position in shares of Salesforce by 159.0% during the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 17,325,206 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $4,106,255,000 after acquiring an additional 10,636,161 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its stake in Salesforce by 130.2% during the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 12,659,217 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $2,363,096,000 after purchasing an additional 7,160,302 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cardano Risk Management B.V. boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 924.7% in the fourth quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 3,883,610 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $1,028,807,000 after purchasing an additional 3,504,605 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 11th will be issued a $0.44 dividend. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 11th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 20.37%.

Salesforce declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback plan on Monday, March 16th that authorizes the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the CRM provider to repurchase up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Salesforce Company Profile

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.