Cantor Fitzgerald Reaffirms "Overweight" Rating for Salesforce (NYSE:CRM)

Key Points

• Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an Overweight rating on Salesforce and set a $250 price target, implying about 40% upside from the prior close.
• Salesforce recently reported a strong quarter, with EPS of $3.88 and revenue of $11.13 billion both beating estimates, while revenue rose 13.3% year over year.
• The company also announced a $25 billion share repurchase program, and analysts/investors are watching whether Salesforce can sustain growth and monetize its AI initiatives despite some concern over near-term revenue guidance.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "overweight" rating reiterated by investment analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald in a research report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $250.00 price target on the CRM provider's stock. Cantor Fitzgerald's target price points to a potential upside of 40.20% from the company's previous close.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. Wedbush reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $325.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday. Truist Financial set a $280.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Citigroup reissued a "market outperform" rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday. TD Cowen reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Friday, May 22nd. Finally, Barclays decreased their target price on Salesforce from $265.00 to $252.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have assigned a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $266.76.

Salesforce Stock Up 0.5%

NYSE:CRM traded up $0.80 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $178.31. The stock had a trading volume of 7,799,003 shares, compared to its average volume of 12,873,628. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $181.23 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $211.16. The company has a market cap of $145.90 billion, a PE ratio of 22.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.14. Salesforce has a 1-year low of $163.52 and a 1-year high of $276.80. The company has a current ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18.

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

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

Insider Activity at Salesforce

In other news, Director Laura Alber acquired 2,571 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 19th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $194.58 per share, with a total value of $500,265.18. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 9,530 shares in the company, 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 filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director David Blair Kirk bought 2,570 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $194.62 per share, for a total transaction of $500,173.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the director 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 currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Salesforce

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Allen Capital Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 58.7% during the 1st quarter. Allen Capital Group LLC now owns 1,241 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $232,000 after purchasing an additional 459 shares in the last quarter. Axiom Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Salesforce in the first quarter worth $192,000. Summitry LLC boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 4.1% during the first quarter. Summitry LLC now owns 223,478 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $41,717,000 after purchasing an additional 8,815 shares in the last quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC acquired a new position in Salesforce during the first quarter worth $1,907,000. Finally, Verus Capital Partners LLC increased 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 worth $402,000 after purchasing an additional 673 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Key Salesforce News

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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