Salesforce's (CRM) Buy Rating Reaffirmed at Guggenheim

Key Points

• Guggenheim reaffirmed its “buy” rating on Salesforce and set a $228 price target, suggesting 10.68% upside from the stock’s current price.
• Salesforce reported a quarterly earnings and revenue beat, with EPS of $3.88 versus a $3.13 consensus estimate and revenue of $11.13 billion. Revenue increased 13.3% year over year.
• Analyst sentiment remains broadly positive, with MarketBeat assigning Salesforce a “Moderate Buy” consensus rating and an average price target of $249.49; institutional investors own 80.43% of outstanding shares.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "buy" rating reissued by equities researchers at Guggenheim in a research note issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $228.00 target price on the CRM provider's stock. Guggenheim's price objective indicates a potential upside of 10.68% from the stock's current price.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on CRM. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $187.00 to $204.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday. Barclays upgraded Salesforce from an "overweight" rating to an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, June 18th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on Salesforce from $225.00 to $215.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. B. Riley Financial upped their price objective on Salesforce from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, Susquehanna began coverage on Salesforce in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. They set a "neutral" rating on the stock. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-four have given a Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Salesforce has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $249.49.

Salesforce Stock Performance

CRM opened at $206.00 on Thursday. Salesforce has a 1-year low of $146.32 and a 1-year high of $269.11. The company has a market cap of $168.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.79, a PEG ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 1.16. The company's fifty day moving average price is $172.69 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $181.41. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.13 by $0.75. Salesforce had a net margin of 18.73% and a return on equity of 18.72%. The company had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.05 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.58 earnings per share. The firm'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. On average, analysts expect that Salesforce will post 10.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Ancora Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Salesforce by 2.5% in the second quarter. Ancora Advisors LLC now owns 90,219 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $14,134,000 after purchasing an additional 2,195 shares in the last quarter. Sigma Planning Corp lifted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 8.7% during the 2nd quarter. Sigma Planning Corp now owns 18,891 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $2,960,000 after buying an additional 1,517 shares in the last quarter. GTS Securities LLC boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 279.1% in the 2nd quarter. GTS Securities LLC now owns 14,081 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $2,206,000 after buying an additional 10,367 shares during the period. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. bought a new position in Salesforce in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $730,350,000. Finally, Flputnam Investment Management Co. grew its stake in Salesforce by 145.9% in the 2nd quarter. Flputnam Investment Management Co. now owns 36,217 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $5,674,000 after buying an additional 21,491 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Key Stories Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Analyst reiterates bullish view: Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed its “overweight” rating and assigned a $250 price target, implying approximately 21% upside from the reference price. Benzinga
• Positive Sentiment: Agentforce momentum supports the AI narrative: Salesforce’s Agentforce annual recurring revenue reportedly surged 205% as customer adoption increased. Deeper integration of AI into CRM workflows could strengthen Salesforce’s competitive position in enterprise software and support longer-term revenue growth. Agentforce AI analysis
• Positive Sentiment: Product expansion: Salesforce expanded Headless 360 across its portfolio, potentially improving flexibility for developers and broadening the platform’s role in customers’ technology stacks. Headless 360 expansion
• Positive Sentiment: Valuation and sector rotation: Commentators described CRM as a long-term value opportunity, while investors rotated from semiconductor stocks into beaten-down software names. Salesforce also benefits from indirect exposure to Anthropic through its investment and integration relationships. Software sector rotation
• Neutral Sentiment: Upcoming earnings remain the key catalyst: Investors are increasingly focused on Salesforce’s expected late-August earnings report. The company’s latest quarter exceeded EPS and revenue estimates, but the market wants evidence that AI monetization is translating into sustained growth.
• Negative Sentiment: Beat expectations are mixed: A Zacks analysis indicated Salesforce may lack the usual combination of factors associated with a likely earnings beat. Concerns about software business models being disrupted by AI could also limit enthusiasm despite recent analyst upgrades. Salesforce earnings expectations

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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