Citizens Jmp Reaffirms Market Outperform Rating for Salesforce (NYSE:CRM)

Key Points

• Citizens JMP reaffirmed a Market Outperform rating on Salesforce and kept a $315 price target, implying roughly 76% upside from the prior close.
• Salesforce’s latest quarter beat expectations, with EPS of $3.88 on $11.13 billion in revenue; revenue rose 13.3% year over year and the company lifted its FY2027 EPS guidance.
• The stock has also been supported by bullish longer-term signals, including a $25 billion share buyback authorization and continued institutional ownership, while analysts remain mixed overall with a Moderate Buy consensus.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "market outperform" rating reissued by research analysts at Citizens Jmp in a research note issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $315.00 target price on the CRM provider's stock. Citizens Jmp's price objective would suggest a potential upside of 75.97% from the company's previous close.

Other research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Bank of America initiated coverage on Salesforce in a research note on Monday, May 18th. They issued an "underperform" rating and a $160.00 price target for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Salesforce from $365.00 to $320.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 26th. TD Cowen restated a "buy" rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Friday, May 22nd. DA Davidson reduced their price target on shares of Salesforce from $200.00 to $175.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Oppenheimer lowered their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $275.00 to $250.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have issued a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $263.09.

Salesforce Price Performance

Shares of CRM traded up $1.49 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $179.00. The stock had a trading volume of 8,991,961 shares, compared to its average volume of 12,893,763. The company has a market capitalization of $146.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.14. Salesforce has a 12-month low of $163.52 and a 12-month high of $276.80. The company's 50-day moving average is $181.23 and its 200 day moving average is $211.16. 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 released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.13 by $0.75. The firm had revenue of $11.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $11.05 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 17.96% and a return on equity of 15.38%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter 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. On average, equities analysts predict that Salesforce will post 9.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce announced that its board has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Monday, March 16th that authorizes the company to buyback $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the CRM provider to buy up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are usually an indication that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director David Blair Kirk bought 2,570 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $194.62 per share, with a total value of $500,173.40. Following the completion of the purchase, the director owned 13,689 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,664,153.18. The trade was a 23.11% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Laura Alber acquired 2,571 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 19th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $194.58 per share, with a total value of $500,265.18. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 9,530 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,854,347.40. The trade was a 36.94% 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.

Institutional Trading of Salesforce

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of CRM. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 89,843,166 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $23,800,353,000 after purchasing an additional 270,913 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in Salesforce by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 50,080,230 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $13,286,909,000 after purchasing an additional 659,573 shares in the last quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP lifted its position in Salesforce by 24,056.7% during the fourth quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 47,385,511 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $12,552,896,000 after purchasing an additional 47,189,352 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors grew its stake in shares of Salesforce by 13.3% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 22,721,010 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $6,019,199,000 after buying an additional 2,669,891 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 3.8% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 21,782,556 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $5,751,073,000 after buying an additional 791,345 shares during the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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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