Needham & Company LLC Reaffirms “Buy” Rating for Salesforce (NYSE:CRM)

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reissued by investment analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $400.00 target price on the CRM provider’s stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price objective points to a potential upside of 57.13% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other equities analysts have also weighed in on the stock. Phillip Securities lowered shares of Salesforce from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $253.00 to $166.00 in a research report on Monday, June 29th. HC Wainwright cut shares of Salesforce to a “negative” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. Macquarie Infrastructure lowered their target price on shares of Salesforce from $200.00 to $190.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 28th. TD Cowen boosted their price target on shares of Salesforce from $240.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 27th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Salesforce from $205.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 27th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have issued a Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $266.50.

Salesforce Stock Down 1.4%

NYSE:CRM traded down $3.54 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $254.57. The stock had a trading volume of 6,927,339 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,047,511. Salesforce has a twelve month low of $146.32 and a twelve month high of $269.11. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $185.49 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $183.44. The company has a current ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02. The company has a market capitalization of $209.51 billion, a PE ratio of 23.21, a PEG ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 1.20.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.27 by $2.63. Salesforce had a net margin of 21.99% and a return on equity of 24.90%. The company had revenue of $11.35 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.33 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.91 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 16.670-16.710 EPS and its Q3 2027 guidance at 3.420-3.440 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Salesforce will post 12.64 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Fred Alger Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 14,943 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $3,548,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares during the period. Synergy Financial Group LTD grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 2.4% in the third quarter. Synergy Financial Group LTD now owns 2,035 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $482,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares during the period. CBIZ Investment Advisory Services LLC grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 35.4% in the fourth quarter. CBIZ Investment Advisory Services LLC now owns 199 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $53,000 after purchasing an additional 52 shares during the period. Krane Funds Advisors LLC increased its stake in Salesforce by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Krane Funds Advisors LLC now owns 8,254 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $2,187,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Finally, HBW Advisory Services LLC increased its stake in Salesforce by 0.4% in the first quarter. HBW Advisory Services LLC now owns 13,098 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $2,445,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Analysts raised their targets: Cantor Fitzgerald, BTIG Research and Argus lifted their price targets to $300, while maintaining bullish ratings. The new targets imply meaningful upside and reinforce optimism that Salesforce’s earnings growth and AI monetization can continue. Argus Increases Salesforce Price Target
• Positive Sentiment: Strong results eased disruption concerns: Salesforce’s latest quarter produced $11.35 billion in revenue and adjusted EPS of $5.90, both ahead of expectations. Revenue increased about 11% year over year, while Agentforce recurring revenue more than tripled, supporting the view that AI is becoming a growth driver rather than a threat to the company’s software business. Salesforce Agentforce Growth Catalyst
• Positive Sentiment: AI ecosystem expansion: Salesforce’s Anthropic partnership, branded Claudeforce, and investments involving workforce-data platform HiBob and AgentExchange broaden its enterprise AI offerings and could create additional monetization opportunities. Salesforce Workforce AI and AgentExchange
• Neutral Sentiment: Expectations are now elevated: Management raised fiscal 2027 guidance, but investors increasingly expect revenue growth to accelerate. The stock’s next catalyst may depend on whether Salesforce can convert strong AI adoption into sustained subscription growth and bookings.
• Negative Sentiment: Short-term technical pressure: The stock has rallied sharply since its August lows, pushing its relative strength index above 80, a level commonly associated with overbought conditions. Profit-taking after the post-earnings surge is likely contributing to the current weakness. Salesforce Looks Overbought
• Negative Sentiment: Some earnings estimates were reduced: Northland Securities raised its full-year fiscal 2027 EPS forecast but lowered estimates for the third and fourth quarters and fiscal 2028, signaling lingering concerns about the pace and durability of growth.

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.