BMO Capital Markets Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Stock Price

Key Points

• BMO Capital Markets cut its price target on Salesforce from $225 to $215 while keeping an outperform rating, implying about 20% upside from the current share price.
• Salesforce recently beat quarterly expectations, posting $3.88 EPS on $11.13 billion in revenue, with revenue up 13.3% year over year. The company also raised its FY2027 EPS guidance.
• Despite the strong results, sentiment is mixed: several analysts have lowered price targets, and investors remain focused on whether Salesforce can grow fast enough and monetize AI to offset disruption concerns in enterprise software.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) had its price objective lowered by equities researchers at BMO Capital Markets from $225.00 to $215.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an "outperform" rating on the CRM provider's stock. BMO Capital Markets' price objective points to a potential upside of 20.47% from the stock's current price.

Other research analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Piper Sandler reiterated an "overweight" rating and set a $215.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday. Roth Mkm reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday. Oppenheimer cut their target price on shares of Salesforce from $275.00 to $250.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Sanford C. Bernstein decreased their target price on shares of Salesforce from $223.00 to $194.00 and set an "underperform" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, Mizuho lowered their price target on shares of Salesforce from $280.00 to $265.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have given a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $270.91.

Salesforce Trading Up 0.5%

NYSE CRM opened at $178.46 on Thursday. Salesforce has a 1 year low of $163.52 and a 1 year high of $276.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 0.76 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The company has a market capitalization of $146.02 billion, a PE ratio of 22.83, a P/E/G ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a fifty day moving average of $181.23 and a 200 day moving average of $211.16.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.13 by $0.75. The business had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.05 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 15.38% and a net margin of 17.96%.The company's revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.58 EPS. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 14.060-14.120 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 3.250-3.270 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Salesforce will post 9.71 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Insider Transactions at Salesforce

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

Institutional Trading of Salesforce

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of CRM. Allen Capital Group LLC raised its stake in Salesforce by 58.7% during the first quarter. Allen Capital Group LLC now owns 1,241 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $232,000 after purchasing an additional 459 shares during the period. Axiom Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $192,000. Summitry LLC grew its stake in shares of Salesforce by 4.1% in the 1st quarter. Summitry LLC now owns 223,478 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $41,717,000 after buying an additional 8,815 shares during the period. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,907,000. Finally, Verus Capital Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Salesforce by 45.4% during the 1st quarter. Verus Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,154 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $402,000 after buying an additional 673 shares during the period. 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Key Stories Impacting Salesforce

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

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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