Salesforce’s (CRM) Buy Rating Reaffirmed at BTIG Research

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM)‘s stock had its “buy” rating restated by BTIG Research in a report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $255.00 price target on the CRM provider’s stock. BTIG Research’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 40.59% from the stock’s previous close.

CRM has been the topic of several other reports. KeyCorp dropped their target price on Salesforce from $400.00 to $300.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Salesforce from $365.00 to $320.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $281.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on Salesforce from $375.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 23rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on Salesforce from $398.00 to $287.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 23rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Salesforce has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $279.18.

Salesforce Stock Performance

Salesforce stock opened at $181.37 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $188.05 and its 200-day moving average is $224.57. The company has a market cap of $167.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 0.76 and a quick ratio of 0.76. Salesforce has a 12 month low of $163.52 and a 12 month high of $296.05.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.05 by $0.76. The company had revenue of $11.20 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.18 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 15.38% and a net margin of 17.96%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.78 EPS. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 13.110-13.190 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.110-3.130 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Salesforce will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan on Monday, March 16th that allows the company to buyback $25.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the CRM provider to reacquire up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Salesforce news, Director Laura Alber acquired 2,571 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 19th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $194.58 per share, for a total transaction of $500,265.18. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 9,530 shares in the company, valued at $1,854,347.40. This trade represents a 36.94% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 2,570 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $194.62 per share, with a total value of $500,173.40. Following the purchase, the director owned 13,689 shares in the company, valued at $2,664,153.18. This represents a 23.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. 3.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Salesforce

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Salesforce by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 89,843,166 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $23,800,353,000 after purchasing an additional 270,913 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in Salesforce by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 50,080,230 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $13,286,909,000 after purchasing an additional 659,573 shares in the last quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 24,056.7% in the 4th quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 47,385,511 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $12,552,896,000 after acquiring an additional 47,189,352 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 13.3% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 22,721,010 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $6,019,199,000 after acquiring an additional 2,669,891 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 3.8% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 21,782,556 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $5,751,073,000 after acquiring an additional 791,345 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

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.