Analysts Offer Predictions for Salesforce Q1 Earnings

Key Points

• KeyCorp expects Salesforce to earn $2.28 per share in Q1 2028, with full-year consensus earnings currently at $10.29 per share. The firm also forecast Q2, Q3, and Q4 EPS of $2.42, $2.39, and $2.72, respectively.
• Analyst sentiment on Salesforce remains mixed but tilted positive, with the stock carrying a Moderate Buy consensus and an average price target of $254.42. Recent calls ranged from upgrades to buy to downgrades and neutral ratings, reflecting uncertainty around near-term growth catalysts.
• Salesforce recently beat its last earnings estimate, reporting $3.88 EPS on $11.13 billion in revenue, while also continuing shareholder returns through a $25 billion buyback and a quarterly dividend. The stock was trading at $163.34, well below its 52-week high of $274.00.

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) - Analysts at KeyCorp issued their Q1 2028 EPS estimates for shares of Salesforce in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, July 8th. KeyCorp analyst J. Ader anticipates that the CRM provider will earn $2.28 per share for the quarter. KeyCorp has a "Sector Weight" rating on the stock. The consensus estimate for Salesforce's current full-year earnings is $10.29 per share. KeyCorp also issued estimates for Salesforce's Q2 2028 earnings at $2.42 EPS, Q3 2028 earnings at $2.39 EPS and Q4 2028 earnings at $2.72 EPS.

Several other analysts have also recently issued reports on CRM. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Salesforce from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Saturday, June 6th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of Salesforce from $210.00 to $200.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Susquehanna initiated coverage on Salesforce in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. They issued a "neutral" rating for the company. Roth Capital reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $325.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, Citizens Jmp reaffirmed a "market outperform" rating and issued a $315.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have given a Buy rating, fourteen have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $254.42.

Salesforce Stock Performance

Salesforce stock opened at $163.34 on Monday. Salesforce has a 52 week low of $146.32 and a 52 week high of $274.00. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15. The stock has a market cap of $133.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.88 and a beta of 1.18. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $171.89 and a 200-day moving average of $194.02.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.13 by $0.75. The business had revenue of $11.13 billion for 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 earnings per share. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 14.060-14.120 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 3.250-3.270 EPS.

Institutional Trading of Salesforce

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CRM. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd boosted its position in shares of Salesforce by 3.7% during the fourth quarter. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd now owns 683,790 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $181,143,000 after purchasing an additional 24,332 shares in the last quarter. SFE Investment Counsel increased its position in shares of Salesforce by 82.7% in the 4th quarter. SFE Investment Counsel now owns 17,394 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $4,608,000 after buying an additional 7,871 shares in the last quarter. Secured Retirement Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Salesforce during the 1st quarter worth $1,004,000. Eminence Capital LP lifted its holdings in Salesforce by 5.6% during the third quarter. Eminence Capital LP now owns 830,536 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $196,837,000 after acquiring an additional 43,888 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in Salesforce during the fourth quarter worth about $997,000. 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Salesforce announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase program on Monday, March 16th that allows the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the CRM provider to purchase up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company's board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 11th were paid a dividend of $0.44 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 11th. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.1%. Salesforce's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 20.37%.

More Salesforce News

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce announced a $1 billion investment in Switzerland over five years to expand adoption of agentic AI, reinforcing its commitment to AI-led growth and potentially strengthening its international enterprise relationships.
• Positive Sentiment: A bullish deep-dive argued Salesforce is trading at a depressed valuation, with strong free-cash-flow generation and a large debt-funded buyback that reduced share count by more than 10%, signaling management confidence in the business.
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce also unveiled MCP-powered capabilities for Slackbot, which could improve product usefulness and customer engagement, but the market may need proof that these features translate into faster growth.
• Neutral Sentiment: Triveni Power Transmission’s partnership with Salesforce for customer engagement in manufacturing adds another example of industry adoption, though the near-term financial impact appears limited.
• Negative Sentiment: KeyBanc’s downgrade and slightly lower earnings forecast added to investor skepticism that Agentforce will become a major growth catalyst soon.
• Negative Sentiment: Several market commentaries highlighted that CRM has been a weak performer over the past year, and the recent pullback suggests investors remain cautious despite its lower valuation.

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.

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