Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) Receives Average Rating of "Moderate Buy" from Brokerages

Key Points

• Analysts rate Salesforce a "Moderate Buy" — 39 brokerages cover CRM (26 buy, 11 hold, 1 sell, 1 strong buy) with an average 12‑month price target of $279.18 versus the stock trading around $182.13 on the latest open.
• Quarterly results beat expectations: Salesforce reported $3.81 EPS (vs. $3.05 est.) and $11.20B revenue (up 12.1% YoY), and set FY‑2027 EPS guidance of 13.110–13.190 and Q1 guidance of 3.110–3.130.
• Shareholder returns stepped up — the company raised its quarterly dividend to $0.44 (1.0% yield) and the board authorized a $25 billion share repurchase program (about 14.1% of outstanding shares), alongside recent insider purchases.

Shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) have been given a consensus recommendation of "Moderate Buy" by the thirty-nine brokerages that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, eleven have assigned a hold recommendation, twenty-six have issued a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price target among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $279.1765.

CRM has been the topic of several research analyst reports. DA Davidson cut their target price on Salesforce from $235.00 to $200.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a "hold (c)" rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Monday, December 29th. Sanford C. Bernstein cut their price target on Salesforce from $223.00 to $194.00 and set an "underperform" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 26th. BTIG Research reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $255.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a report on Friday. Finally, Northland Securities cut their price target on Salesforce from $267.00 to $229.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 10th.

Salesforce Stock Up 0.5%

Shares of Salesforce stock opened at $182.13 on Friday. Salesforce has a one year low of $163.52 and a one year high of $296.05. 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 stock's 50-day moving average is $187.87 and its 200 day moving average is $224.13. The firm has a market cap of $168.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.32, a PEG ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.29.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.05 by $0.76. Salesforce had a return on equity of 15.38% and a net margin of 17.96%.The company had revenue of $11.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.18 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.78 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 13.110-13.190 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.110-3.130 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Salesforce will post 7.46 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 9th will be issued a $0.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 9th. This is an increase from Salesforce's previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.0%. Salesforce's dividend payout ratio is currently 22.54%.

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 buy up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company's board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at Salesforce

In other news, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 2,570 shares of the business's stock in a transaction 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 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Laura Alber purchased 2,571 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 19th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $194.58 per share, for a total transaction of $500,265.18. Following the acquisition, the director owned 9,530 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,854,347.40. This represents a 36.94% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. 3.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Krilogy Financial LLC raised its stake in shares of Salesforce by 12.6% in the first quarter. Krilogy Financial LLC now owns 6,521 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $1,182,000 after purchasing an additional 728 shares during the last quarter. Kennebec Savings Bank raised its stake in shares of Salesforce by 8.2% in the first quarter. Kennebec Savings Bank now owns 3,655 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $682,000 after purchasing an additional 276 shares during the last quarter. Prentice Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Salesforce by 1.8% in the first quarter. Prentice Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,274 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $611,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Stonebridge Financial Group LLC MO raised its stake in shares of Salesforce by 16.9% in the first quarter. Stonebridge Financial Group LLC MO now owns 1,900 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $355,000 after purchasing an additional 275 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Anchyra Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Salesforce by 11.3% in the first quarter. Anchyra Partners LLC now owns 2,198 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $410,000 after purchasing an additional 223 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company's stock.

More Salesforce News

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: BTIG reaffirmed a "buy" on CRM and set a $255 price target (≈40% upside vs. current levels), giving institutional backing that can support further upside. BTIG Reaffirms Buy on Salesforce
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce launched Headless 360, positioning its full platform as infrastructure for AI agents — a strategic move that could broaden addressable market and accelerate enterprise AI spending across the Salesforce stack. Salesforce launches Headless 360
• Positive Sentiment: Customer wins/expansions show traction for Agentforce 360 — travel platform Engine expanded use of AI agents and Slack, automating ~50% of chat cases, cutting handle time ~15% and improving satisfaction, which supports revenue upsell potential for contact-center automation. Engine expands Agentforce 360
• Positive Sentiment: Data 360 adoption shows strong momentum (reported ~200% ARR growth), highlighting a potential new growth driver for larger enterprise contracts and higher‑value deals. CRM's Data 360 Momentum Builds
• Neutral Sentiment: Software-sector momentum helped lift CRM amid a broad bounce in the IGV ETF; sector flows can amplify CRM moves but are not company‑specific fundamentals. Software Stocks Finish Week Hot
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst and media bullishness (e.g., opinion pieces expressing strong conviction) supports sentiment but is not new fundamental data; it can sustain momentum if paired with continued execution. Why I Have Strong Conviction In This Stock
• Negative Sentiment: A recent CMSWire review of Agentforce highlights strengths but also gaps versus rivals (implementation complexity and feature gaps in some areas), a reminder that competitive execution and product parity risk could temper adoption speed. Salesforce Agentforce Contact Center Review

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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