Barclays Lowers Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Price Target to $236.00

Key Points

• Barclays cut its price target on Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) from $252 to $236, while keeping an overweight rating. The new target still implies about 32% upside from the stock’s current price.
• Salesforce recently reported better-than-expected Q1 results, with $3.88 EPS and $11.13 billion in revenue, both topping estimates. Revenue rose 13.3% year over year, and the company also raised its FY2027 EPS guidance.
• Despite the earnings beat, the stock has faced pressure because its near-term revenue outlook slightly missed expectations. Analysts remain mixed overall, though the consensus rating is still Moderate Buy with an average target price of $262.62.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) had its price objective cut by equities research analysts at Barclays from $252.00 to $236.00 in a note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an "overweight" rating on the CRM provider's stock. Barclays's price target points to a potential upside of 32.42% from the stock's current price.

CRM has been the subject of a number of other reports. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on Salesforce from $398.00 to $287.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 23rd. Roth Mkm reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $325.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday. B. Riley Financial raised their target price on Salesforce from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday. UBS Group restated a "market outperform" rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on Salesforce from $210.00 to $200.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have assigned a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Salesforce presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $262.62.

Salesforce Trading Up 0.4%

NYSE:CRM traded up $0.71 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $178.22. 9,420,389 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 12,895,045. The company has a current ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $181.23 and a 200 day simple moving average of $211.16. Salesforce has a one year low of $163.52 and a one year high of $276.80. The stock has a market capitalization of $145.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.14.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.13 by $0.75. Salesforce had a return on equity of 15.38% and a net margin of 17.96%.The firm had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.05 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.58 EPS. The business's 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. Sell-side analysts expect that Salesforce will post 9.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase program on Monday, March 16th that allows the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the CRM provider to reacquire up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Salesforce news, Director Laura Alber bought 2,571 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 19th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $194.58 per share, for a total transaction of $500,265.18. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 9,530 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,854,347.40. This represents a 36.94% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director David Blair Kirk bought 2,570 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $194.62 per share, for a total transaction of $500,173.40. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 13,689 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,664,153.18. The trade was a 23.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. 3.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Salesforce

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Rockland Trust Co. lifted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 1,145.6% during the 3rd quarter. Rockland Trust Co. now owns 13,066 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $3,097,000 after buying an additional 12,017 shares in the last quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 98.3% during the 3rd quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 21,455 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $5,085,000 after buying an additional 10,633 shares in the last quarter. Midwest Trust Co lifted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. Midwest Trust Co now owns 187,071 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $44,336,000 after buying an additional 4,233 shares in the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 15.1% during the third quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 467,551 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $113,420,000 after acquiring an additional 61,270 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AGF Management Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 42.2% during the third quarter. AGF Management Ltd. now owns 281,054 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $66,610,000 after acquiring an additional 83,403 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Salesforce News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Piper Sandler reaffirmed its Overweight rating on Salesforce and set a $215 price target, implying meaningful upside from current levels. Benzinga
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce announced an expanded collaboration with CVS Health to use Agentforce Health AI agents to improve call center service for millions of members and providers, highlighting new enterprise use cases for its AI platform. PR Newswire
• Positive Sentiment: In Q1, Salesforce reported $3.88 EPS and $11.13 billion in revenue, both above expectations, with revenue up 13% year over year and margins improving. Reuters
• Positive Sentiment: The company also lifted its FY2027 EPS guidance, signaling management still expects strong profitability even as investors question AI disruption risk. MarketBeat
• Neutral Sentiment: Analysts and media coverage remain focused on the key debate: whether Salesforce can maintain growth and monetize AI quickly enough to offset broader disruption concerns in enterprise software. CNBC
• Negative Sentiment: Despite the earnings beat, Salesforce’s near-term revenue outlook slightly missed Wall Street estimates, which is the main reason shares have been softer. Stocktwits

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.

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