Northland Securities Expects Reduced Earnings for Salesforce

Key Points

• Northland Securities trimmed its Q2 2027 earnings estimate for Salesforce to $2.34 per share from $2.36, while keeping a Market Perform rating and a $229 price target.
• Despite the slightly lowered forecast, Salesforce recently beat Wall Street expectations for its latest quarter, posting $3.88 EPS on $11.13 billion in revenue, both above estimates.
• Market sentiment remains mixed: analysts broadly still lean positive, with Salesforce holding a Moderate Buy consensus, while the company also continues to support shareholder returns through a quarterly dividend and a $25 billion buyback program.

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) - Analysts at Northland Securities decreased their Q2 2027 earnings per share estimates for Salesforce in a research report issued on Thursday, May 28th. Northland Securities analyst N. Chokshi now forecasts that the CRM provider will post earnings per share of $2.34 for the quarter, down from their prior forecast of $2.36. Northland Securities currently has a "Market Perform" rating and a $229.00 target price on the stock. The consensus estimate for Salesforce's current full-year earnings is $10.30 per share. Northland Securities also issued estimates for Salesforce's Q3 2027 earnings at $2.88 EPS, Q4 2027 earnings at $3.06 EPS, FY2027 earnings at $11.35 EPS and FY2028 earnings at $12.41 EPS.

CRM has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Oppenheimer dropped their target price on Salesforce from $275.00 to $250.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Salesforce from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Saturday. BTIG Research restated a "buy" rating and issued a $255.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on Salesforce from $300.00 to $250.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on Salesforce from $210.00 to $200.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have issued a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Salesforce presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $257.97.

Salesforce Stock Up 0.1%

CRM stock opened at $185.85 on Monday. Salesforce has a twelve month low of $163.52 and a twelve month high of $276.80. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15. The stock's 50 day moving average is $181.31 and its 200-day moving average is $208.71. The firm has a market capitalization of $152.21 billion, a PE ratio of 21.51, a P/E/G ratio of 1.15 and a beta of 1.16.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results 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. Salesforce had a return on equity of 18.72% and a net margin of 18.73%.The company had revenue of $11.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.05 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.58 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 14.060-14.120 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 3.250-3.270 EPS.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Investors of record on Thursday, June 11th will be issued a dividend of $0.44 per share. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 11th. Salesforce's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 20.37%.

Salesforce declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase program on Monday, March 16th that permits the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the CRM provider to repurchase up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company's board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Institutional Trading of Salesforce

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Rockland Trust Co. boosted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 1,145.6% in the 3rd quarter. Rockland Trust Co. now owns 13,066 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $3,097,000 after buying an additional 12,017 shares during the last quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. boosted its position in Salesforce by 98.3% in the third quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 21,455 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $5,085,000 after purchasing an additional 10,633 shares during the last quarter. Midwest Trust Co boosted its position in Salesforce by 2.3% in the third quarter. Midwest Trust Co now owns 187,071 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $44,336,000 after purchasing an additional 4,233 shares during the last quarter. Profund Advisors LLC boosted its position in Salesforce by 7.2% in the third quarter. Profund Advisors LLC now owns 40,041 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $9,490,000 after purchasing an additional 2,704 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Krilogy Financial LLC purchased a new position in Salesforce in the third quarter worth about $2,944,000. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Key Headlines Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce announced a landmark partnership with FIFA for the 2026 World Cup and 2027 Women’s World Cup, which could showcase its AI-driven Agentforce 360 platform to a massive global audience and potentially drive future enterprise demand. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: KeyCorp kept an Overweight rating and a $290 price target on Salesforce, while modeling earnings above consensus for FY2027, signaling continued analyst confidence in the company’s profit growth. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Recent commentary highlights Salesforce’s strong momentum, helped by its AI strategy, Agentforce rollout, recurring revenue base, and expanding free cash flow, which may keep long-term investors interested. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce’s presentation at the Evercore Global TMT Conference and valuation-focused coverage suggest investors are still reassessing how much of the AI and Agentforce optimism is already priced in. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Bridgewater Associates reportedly sold Salesforce, which can pressure sentiment in the near term, although the article argues that institutional selling may create a better entry point for patient investors. Article Title

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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.