Sanford C. Bernstein Cuts Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Price Target to $173.00

Key Points

• Sanford C. Bernstein cut Salesforce’s price target from $194 to $173 and maintained an underperform rating, implying about 3.81% downside from the current share price.
• Other analysts were mixed but mostly still constructive: several firms lowered targets, while consensus data still shows a Moderate Buy rating with an average price target of $261.71.
• Salesforce recently beat quarterly earnings and revenue expectations, and the company’s board authorized a $25 billion share repurchase program, even as investors remain cautious about near-term growth and guidance.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) had its price objective dropped by analysts at Sanford C. Bernstein from $194.00 to $173.00 in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an "underperform" rating on the CRM provider's stock. Sanford C. Bernstein's target price would indicate a potential downside of 3.81% from the company's current price.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. Citizens Jmp reiterated a "market outperform" rating and issued a $315.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday. DA Davidson dropped their price objective on Salesforce from $200.00 to $175.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Northland Securities dropped their price objective on Salesforce from $267.00 to $229.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 10th. Roth Mkm reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $325.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an "overweight" rating and issued a $250.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have issued a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Salesforce currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $261.71.

Salesforce Price Performance

Salesforce stock traded up $2.34 on Thursday, reaching $179.85. The company's stock had a trading volume of 13,236,405 shares, compared to its average volume of 12,949,687. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.76. The company has a market cap of $147.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.98, a PEG ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.14. The business's fifty day moving average price is $181.23 and its 200 day moving average price is $211.16. Salesforce has a twelve month low of $163.52 and a twelve month high of $276.80.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.13 by $0.75. The company had revenue of $11.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.05 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 15.38% and a net margin of 17.96%.The business's revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.58 earnings per share. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 14.060-14.120 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 3.250-3.270 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Salesforce will post 9.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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

Insider Activity

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Salesforce

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 13.7% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 25,668 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $8,582,000 after acquiring an additional 3,102 shares in the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC raised its position in Salesforce by 12.6% during the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,827 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $611,000 after purchasing an additional 205 shares during the last quarter. Bison Wealth LLC raised its position in Salesforce by 9.0% during the 4th quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 2,234 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $747,000 after purchasing an additional 184 shares during the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC raised its position in Salesforce by 3.7% during the 2nd quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,958 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $807,000 after purchasing an additional 106 shares during the last quarter. Finally, United Bank raised its position in Salesforce by 5.2% during the 2nd quarter. United Bank now owns 10,198 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $2,781,000 after purchasing an additional 500 shares during 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: Salesforce reported first-quarter results that beat expectations on both earnings and revenue, with EPS of $3.88 versus $3.13 expected and revenue of $11.13 billion versus $11.05 billion forecast. Management also raised full-year profit guidance, which supports the stock. Reuters article
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce said Agentforce annualized revenue crossed the $1 billion mark, reinforcing investor interest in its AI strategy and showing that AI products are gaining traction. CNBC article
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce announced an expanded collaboration with CVS Health to use Agentforce Health to streamline call-center interactions for millions of members and providers, a potential validation of its AI offerings in a major enterprise customer. PR Newswire article
• Neutral Sentiment: Analysts largely kept bullish ratings in place after the report, including reaffirmed “outperform”/“overweight” calls from Wedbush, Piper Sandler, Citizens JMP and Cantor Fitzgerald, though several firms trimmed price targets, reflecting a more cautious near-term setup. Benzinga article
• Negative Sentiment: Investors remain focused on slower top-line trends and a slightly light revenue outlook for next quarter, which fed the “AI threat” narrative and helped explain why the stock did not get a bigger post-earnings lift. Stocktwits article

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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