Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the forty-seven brokerages that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seventeen have given a hold rating, twenty-five have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 1-year target price among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $248.7179.

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, August 20th. Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Tuesday, July 14th. Citizens Jmp restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $315.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Tuesday. B. Riley Financial increased their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, HSBC upped their price target on Salesforce from $350.00 to $356.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 29th.

Key Headlines Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Analysts continue to see upside: Canaccord Genuity reaffirmed a “buy” rating with a $225 price target, Citizens JMP maintained “market outperform” with a $315 target, and BTIG reiterated “buy” with a $255 target. These targets imply that the recent pullback has created potential valuation upside. Analyst rating updates
• Positive Sentiment: Agentforce adoption and Salesforce’s expanding AI ecosystem are expected to support subscription growth. New integrations from ZoomInfo and Agiloft on the AgentExchange marketplace also suggest that third-party developers are increasingly using Salesforce and Slack AI workflows, strengthening the company’s platform moat. CRM Q2 earnings preview AgentExchange ecosystem
• Neutral Sentiment: Jefferies expects an in-line fiscal second quarter. Its survey of 20 Salesforce partners was moderately encouraging, with 70% reporting results at or above plan, but investors are likely to focus more heavily on management’s second-half growth outlook and Agentforce monetization. Jefferies Salesforce outlook
• Negative Sentiment: The earnings setup leaves little room for disappointment: Salesforce is expected to post roughly 10.6% revenue growth, while analysts want evidence that slower sales growth is reaccelerating. The stock is also testing technical resistance near $210, and broader caution toward technology shares may be limiting buying ahead of the report.

Salesforce Trading Down 1.6%

NYSE:CRM opened at $205.74 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15. Salesforce has a 1-year low of $146.32 and a 1-year high of $269.11. The firm has a market capitalization of $168.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.81, a PEG ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.16. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $176.11 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $181.49.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.13 by $0.75. The company had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.05 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 18.72% and a net margin of 18.73%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.58 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Salesforce will post 10.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Investors of record on Thursday, June 11th were paid a $0.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 11th. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 20.37%.

Institutional Trading of Salesforce

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CRM. Brighton Jones LLC increased its position in Salesforce by 13.7% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 25,668 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $8,582,000 after buying an additional 3,102 shares during the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC raised its stake in Salesforce by 12.6% in the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,827 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $611,000 after acquiring an additional 205 shares during the period. Bison Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in Salesforce by 9.0% during the 4th quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 2,234 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $747,000 after purchasing an additional 184 shares during the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC boosted its position in Salesforce by 3.7% during the second quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,958 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $807,000 after purchasing an additional 106 shares during the period. Finally, United Bank increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 5.2% in the second quarter. United Bank now owns 10,198 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $2,781,000 after purchasing an additional 500 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

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.