Monness Crespi & Hardt Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Stock

Key Points

• Monness Crespi & Hardt raised Salesforce’s price target to $222 from $200 and maintained a “buy” rating, implying roughly 14.9% upside from the prior close. The broader analyst consensus remains “Moderate Buy,” with an average target of $250.85.
• Salesforce reported quarterly adjusted EPS of $3.88, beating the $3.13 consensus estimate, while revenue rose 13.3% year over year to $11.13 billion. Institutional investors own approximately 80.4% of the company’s stock.
• Despite optimism around Salesforce’s AI ecosystem and declining short interest, concerns remain over mixed customer trends, competition from internally built AI software, and whether AI adoption could weaken demand for traditional CRM subscriptions.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) had its target price upped by research analysts at Monness Crespi & Hardt from $200.00 to $222.00 in a research note issued on Thursday. The brokerage currently has a "buy" rating on the CRM provider's stock. Monness Crespi & Hardt's price target would indicate a potential upside of 14.91% from the stock's previous close.

A number of other research firms have also recently commented on CRM. Bank of America began coverage on Salesforce in a research note on Monday, May 18th. They issued an "underperform" rating and a $160.00 target price on the stock. B. Riley Financial upped their price target on shares of Salesforce from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Erste Group Bank raised shares of Salesforce from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. BTIG Research restated a "buy" rating and set a $255.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. Finally, DA Davidson decreased their target price on shares of Salesforce from $200.00 to $175.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have assigned a Buy rating, sixteen have assigned a Hold rating and four have given a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Salesforce has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $250.85.

Salesforce Price Performance

Shares of CRM opened at $193.20 on Thursday. Salesforce has a fifty-two week low of $146.32 and a fifty-two week high of $269.11. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $170.96 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $182.38. The stock has a market cap of $158.23 billion, a PE ratio of 22.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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 return on equity of 18.72% and a net margin of 18.73%.The firm had revenue of $11.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $11.05 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.58 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter 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 anticipate that Salesforce will post 10.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Salesforce

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Fred Alger Management LLC lifted its stake in Salesforce by 0.3% during the third quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 14,943 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $3,548,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. Richards Merrill & Peterson Inc. increased its stake in Salesforce by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Richards Merrill & Peterson Inc. now owns 4,239 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $1,123,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. Wright Investors Service Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Wright Investors Service Inc. now owns 6,186 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $1,639,000 after purchasing an additional 47 shares during the period. Synergy Financial Group LTD lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter. Synergy Financial Group LTD now owns 2,035 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $482,000 after buying an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 6.9% in the 4th quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 745 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $197,000 after buying an additional 48 shares during 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: Analyst price-target increases: UBS raised its target to $210 from $185, while Wells Fargo lifted its target to $205 from $200. Both firms retained neutral or equal-weight ratings, signaling potential upside but limited conviction. Analyst price-target updates
• Positive Sentiment: Short interest declined sharply: Salesforce short interest fell 36.7% in the second half of July to 29.4 million shares, or 3.7% of shares outstanding. The reduction may ease bearish pressure and suggests some short sellers have covered positions.
• Positive Sentiment: AI ecosystem expansion: Salesforce’s Agentforce platform is being incorporated into new enterprise solutions, including Navatar’s governed AI framework for private equity and M&A. Strativera also launched a Salesforce consulting practice on AppExchange, supporting adoption of Salesforce’s platform.
• Neutral Sentiment: AI opportunity remains a key focus: Articles highlight Salesforce’s position as enterprise AI software spending grows, while investors await inflation data and assess whether macroeconomic conditions will affect technology budgets. Enterprise AI software outlook
• Negative Sentiment: UBS cautioned on revenue growth: The bank said Salesforce may temper expectations for an acceleration in second-half revenue because customer trends appear mixed. This directly challenges the growth reacceleration narrative supporting the stock. UBS Salesforce growth outlook
• Negative Sentiment: Competitive and customer-loss concerns: Curative reportedly dropped an approximately $600,000 annual Salesforce contract after developing AI-built software internally, while a major healthcare customer reportedly moved to an in-house AI CRM. These reports reinforce concerns that AI could reduce demand for traditional CRM subscriptions.
• Negative Sentiment: Government AI positioning faces scrutiny: Leadership changes and questions surrounding sensitive government workloads may create uncertainty about Salesforce’s ability to win or retain high-value public-sector AI contracts.

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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