Wall Street Zen Downgrades Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) to Hold

Key Points

• Wall Street Zen downgraded Salesforce from “Buy” to “Hold,” though the broader analyst consensus remains “Moderate Buy” with a $249.51 price target.
• Salesforce reported quarterly EPS of $3.88, beating estimates of $3.13, while revenue rose 13.3% year over year to $11.13 billion.
• The stock opened at $184.34, up 2.0%, with a market capitalization of approximately $151 billion; institutional investors own 80.43% of the company.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) was downgraded by analysts at Wall Street Zen from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note issued to investors on Saturday.

Other equities research analysts have also issued research reports about the company. Wedbush began coverage on Salesforce in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. They issued an "outperform" rating on the stock. Wolfe Research downgraded Salesforce from an "outperform" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. HC Wainwright lowered Salesforce to a "negative" rating in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. Barclays upgraded Salesforce from an "overweight" rating to an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a "buy" rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Tuesday, June 16th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-four have assigned a Buy rating, sixteen have issued a Hold rating and four 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 $249.51.

Salesforce Stock Up 2.0%

Salesforce stock opened at $184.34 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $150.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79. Salesforce has a fifty-two week low of $146.32 and a fifty-two week high of $269.11. The stock's fifty day moving average is $170.34 and its two-hundred day moving average is $185.01.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.13 by $0.75. The company had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $11.05 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 18.73% and a return on equity of 18.72%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $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. Analysts predict that Salesforce will post 10.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Ballast Inc. increased its position in shares of Salesforce by 54.0% in the second quarter. Ballast Inc. now owns 9,737 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $1,525,000 after acquiring an additional 3,415 shares in the last quarter. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 12.8% during the 2nd quarter. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,383 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $217,000 after acquiring an additional 157 shares in the last quarter. Butensky & Cohen Financial Security Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 2nd quarter valued at $2,941,000. Tema ETFs LLC boosted its position in Salesforce by 10.6% during the 2nd quarter. Tema ETFs LLC now owns 19,635 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $3,076,000 after purchasing an additional 1,885 shares during the period. Finally, West Branch Capital LLC increased its holdings in Salesforce by 37.4% in the 2nd quarter. West Branch Capital LLC now owns 426 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $67,000 after purchasing an additional 116 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company's stock.

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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