Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Stock Rating Upgraded by Bank of America

Key Points

• Bank of America upgraded Salesforce from “underperform” to “buy” and raised its price target from $160 to $285, implying 24.48% upside from the reported share price.
• Analyst sentiment is broadly positive: Salesforce has a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating and a consensus price target of $278.12, supported by multiple recent buy and outperform ratings.
• Salesforce reported quarterly earnings of $5.90 per share versus the $3.27 consensus estimate, while revenue rose 10.8% year over year to $11.35 billion.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) was upgraded by equities researchers at Bank of America from an "underperform" rating to a "buy" rating in a note issued to investors on Monday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a $285.00 target price on the CRM provider's stock, up from their prior target price of $160.00. Bank of America's target price would suggest a potential upside of 24.48% from the company's current price.

Other equities analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, September 17th. Mizuho boosted their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $265.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 16th. Citizens Jmp reaffirmed a "market outperform" rating and set a $315.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Friday, September 18th. UBS Group reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Friday, September 11th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Salesforce from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 27th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-one have issued a Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $278.12.

Salesforce Stock Performance

Shares of Salesforce stock opened at $228.95 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $188.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.26. The stock's 50-day moving average is $226.55 and its 200-day moving average is $192.91. Salesforce has a one year low of $146.32 and a one year high of $269.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 0.84 and a quick ratio of 0.84.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.27 by $2.63. Salesforce had a return on equity of 24.90% and a net margin of 21.99%. The company had revenue of $11.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $11.33 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.91 earnings per share. Salesforce's revenue for the quarter 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. Equities analysts predict that Salesforce will post 12.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Salesforce

In other Salesforce news, Director Craig Conway sold 4,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.61, for a total transaction of $1,172,745.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 5,437 shares in the company, valued at $1,416,936.57. This represents a 45.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director David Blair Kirk bought 4,176 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction on Friday, September 18th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $239.33 per share, for a total transaction of $999,442.08. Following the acquisition, the director owned 18,748 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,486,958.84. This represents a 28.66% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. 3.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Salesforce

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in shares of Salesforce in the 2nd quarter worth about $11,396,844,000. Bank of America Corp DE acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce in the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,914,086,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 130.2% in the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 12,659,217 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $2,363,096,000 after purchasing an additional 7,160,302 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 2nd quarter valued at about $927,332,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 2nd quarter valued at about $844,928,000. 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Salesforce Company Profile

Salesforce, Inc NYSE: CRM develops cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) software and enterprise applications. Its platform helps organizations manage sales, customer service, marketing, commerce, analytics, data integration and collaboration through subscription-based services.

The company's product portfolio includes Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Commerce Cloud, Salesforce Platform, Data Cloud and Tableau. Salesforce also offers MuleSoft integration technology, Slack collaboration software and artificial intelligence capabilities through its Einstein platform.

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