Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Stock Rating Upgraded by Monness Crespi & Hardt

Key Points

• Monness Crespi & Hardt upgraded Salesforce from “neutral” to “buy” and set a $200 price target, implying about 29% upside from the prior close.
• Salesforce’s latest earnings beat expectations, with EPS of $3.88 versus estimates of $3.13 and revenue of $11.13 billion topping forecasts. Revenue also rose 13.3% year over year.
• The company has launched a $25 billion share repurchase program, which analysts view as a sign management believes the stock is undervalued and a potential support for shareholder returns.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) was upgraded by analysts at Monness Crespi & Hardt from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating in a report issued on Thursday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The firm presently has a $200.00 price target on the CRM provider's stock. Monness Crespi & Hardt's price objective suggests a potential upside of 29.13% from the stock's previous close.

Several other research analysts have also recently weighed in on CRM. Citizens Jmp reissued a "market outperform" rating and issued a $315.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Northland Securities reduced their target price on Salesforce from $267.00 to $229.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $281.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. KeyCorp reduced their price objective on Salesforce from $300.00 to $290.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, UBS Group reiterated a "neutral" rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Tuesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have given a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $257.61.

Salesforce Stock Performance

Salesforce stock opened at $154.88 on Thursday. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $178.54 and its 200 day simple moving average is $205.28. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15. The firm has a market capitalization of $126.85 billion, a PE ratio of 17.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.16. Salesforce has a 1-year low of $154.23 and a 1-year high of $276.80.

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, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.13 by $0.75. The business had revenue of $11.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.05 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 18.73% and a return on equity of 18.72%. Salesforce's revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.58 EPS. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 14.060-14.120 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 3.250-3.270 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Salesforce will post 10.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce declared that its Board of Directors 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 reacquire up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically a sign that the company's board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of CRM. Lombard Odier Asset Management Europe Ltd grew its holdings in Salesforce by 18.1% in the first quarter. Lombard Odier Asset Management Europe Ltd now owns 40,959 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $7,646,000 after purchasing an additional 6,289 shares during the period. FAS Wealth Partners Inc. grew its stake in shares of Salesforce by 35.0% in the 1st quarter. FAS Wealth Partners Inc. now owns 3,312 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $618,000 after buying an additional 859 shares during the last quarter. Positano Wealth Management Ltd grew its stake in shares of Salesforce by 234.5% in the 1st quarter. Positano Wealth Management Ltd now owns 42,146 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $7,867,000 after buying an additional 29,546 shares during the last quarter. Farmers National Bank grew its stake in shares of Salesforce by 69.2% in the first quarter. Farmers National Bank now owns 4,060 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $758,000 after acquiring an additional 1,660 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wealthquest Corp grew its stake in shares of Salesforce by 32.2% in the first quarter. Wealthquest Corp now owns 1,190 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $222,000 after acquiring an additional 290 shares during the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

More Salesforce News

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Several analyst notes remain constructive, including reaffirmed buy ratings from Needham and Canaccord, with Canaccord’s $225 target implying meaningful upside from current levels. Benzinga analyst note
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce’s planned $3.6 billion acquisition of Fin is being framed as a strategic move to strengthen its AI agent and customer-service automation business, which could support longer-term growth. Salesforce bets $3.6B on Fin as Wedbush sees M&A strategy paying off
• Positive Sentiment: More commentary is highlighting Salesforce’s strong cash generation, rising margins, and its large $50 billion buyback plan, which could help support shareholder returns. Can CRM's Record Cash Generation Support Robust Shareholder Returns?
• Neutral Sentiment: Nextview Consulting launched a fully managed Agentic Sales CRM package built on Salesforce, reinforcing third-party demand for Salesforce’s platform and AI ecosystem. Nextview Consulting launches fully managed Agentic Sales CRM for Mid-Market
• Neutral Sentiment: UBS reaffirmed a neutral rating, reflecting a wait-and-see view rather than a strong bullish catalyst. Salesforce UBS sticks neutral
• Negative Sentiment: Other coverage points to a reduced fair value estimate and growing skepticism about Salesforce’s AI monetization and reacceleration path, which is weighing on sentiment. Salesforce stock sees fair value cut as analysts question AI growth path
• Negative Sentiment: Bearish commentary also warns that Salesforce’s acquisition-heavy strategy could be backfiring and contributing to a steep market-cap decline, keeping pressure on the stock. Salesforce stock wipeout hits $212B as acquisition spree backfires

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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