Wells Fargo & Company Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Stock Price

Key Points

• Wells Fargo cut its price target on Salesforce from $210 to $200 and kept an equal weight rating, implying about 11.7% upside from the prior close.
• Salesforce’s Q1 results beat expectations, with EPS of $3.88 and revenue of $11.13 billion, while revenue rose 13.3% year over year and the company raised FY2027 guidance.
• Investor sentiment remains mixed: several analysts have trimmed price targets, but Salesforce also announced a $25 billion share buyback and continues to see insider and institutional buying.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) had its price objective cut by research analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from $210.00 to $200.00 in a report released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an "equal weight" rating on the CRM provider's stock. Wells Fargo & Company's price objective would suggest a potential upside of 11.73% from the stock's previous close.

Other research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Northland Securities cut their price objective on Salesforce from $267.00 to $229.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 10th. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Tuesday. Citigroup restated a "market outperform" rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday. DA Davidson reduced their price target on shares of Salesforce from $200.00 to $175.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Finally, UBS Group restated a "market outperform" rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have given a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $263.09.

Salesforce Trading Up 0.8%

Shares of Salesforce stock traded up $1.49 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $179.00. The company's stock had a trading volume of 8,991,961 shares, compared to its average volume of 12,893,763. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $181.23 and a 200-day moving average of $211.16. 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 stock has a market cap of $146.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.98, a P/E/G ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.14. Salesforce has a twelve month low of $163.52 and a twelve month high of $276.80.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.13 by $0.75. The firm had revenue of $11.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $11.05 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 17.96% and a return on equity of 15.38%. The firm's revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company 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. Research analysts forecast that Salesforce will post 9.71 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce declared that its Board of Directors has authorized 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 purchase up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often a sign that the company's management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Salesforce

In other news, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 2,570 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was bought at an average price of $194.62 per share, with a total value of $500,173.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 13,689 shares of the company's stock, valued at $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 the SEC website. Also, Director Laura Alber bought 2,571 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 19th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $194.58 per share, with a total value of $500,265.18. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 9,530 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,854,347.40. This represents a 36.94% increase in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. 3.50% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Salesforce

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Rockland Trust Co. boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 1,145.6% in the third quarter. Rockland Trust Co. now owns 13,066 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $3,097,000 after purchasing an additional 12,017 shares during the period. Alps Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 98.3% in the 3rd quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 21,455 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $5,085,000 after buying an additional 10,633 shares during the last quarter. Midwest Trust Co boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. Midwest Trust Co now owns 187,071 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $44,336,000 after buying an additional 4,233 shares during the period. Jones Financial Companies Lllp raised its stake in Salesforce by 15.1% during the third quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 467,551 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $113,420,000 after acquiring an additional 61,270 shares during the period. Finally, AGF Management Ltd. lifted its holdings in Salesforce by 42.2% in the third quarter. AGF Management Ltd. now owns 281,054 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $66,610,000 after acquiring an additional 83,403 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Key Salesforce News

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Piper Sandler reaffirmed its Overweight rating on Salesforce and set a $215 price target, implying meaningful upside from current levels. Benzinga
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce announced an expanded collaboration with CVS Health to use Agentforce Health AI agents to improve call center service for millions of members and providers, highlighting new enterprise use cases for its AI platform. PR Newswire
• Positive Sentiment: In Q1, Salesforce reported $3.88 EPS and $11.13 billion in revenue, both above expectations, with revenue up 13% year over year and margins improving. Reuters
• Positive Sentiment: The company also lifted its FY2027 EPS guidance, signaling management still expects strong profitability even as investors question AI disruption risk. MarketBeat
• Neutral Sentiment: Analysts and media coverage remain focused on the key debate: whether Salesforce can maintain growth and monetize AI quickly enough to offset broader disruption concerns in enterprise software. CNBC
• Negative Sentiment: Despite the earnings beat, Salesforce’s near-term revenue outlook slightly missed Wall Street estimates, which is the main reason shares have been softer. Stocktwits

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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