Royal Bank Of Canada Has Lowered Expectations for Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Stock Price

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) had its price target cut by equities research analysts at Royal Bank Of Canada from $290.00 to $210.00 in a report released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “sector perform” rating on the CRM provider’s stock. Royal Bank Of Canada’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 5.88% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other analysts have also recently weighed in on CRM. Citizens Jmp reiterated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $430.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a report on Tuesday, December 2nd. KeyCorp dropped their target price on shares of Salesforce from $400.00 to $300.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Arete Research upgraded shares of Salesforce to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on shares of Salesforce from $325.00 to $315.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Finally, Barclays cut their price objective on Salesforce from $265.00 to $252.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have issued a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $292.25.

Salesforce Trading Up 3.4%

Shares of NYSE CRM traded up $6.59 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $198.34. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 12,956,100 shares, compared to its average volume of 12,133,321. Salesforce has a 12 month low of $174.57 and a 12 month high of $304.92. The stock has a market cap of $185.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.48, a P/E/G ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 0.98. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $226.45 and a 200-day simple moving average of $238.86.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.05 by $0.76. The business had revenue of $11.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.18 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 14.41% and a net margin of 17.91%.The business’s revenue was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter 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. On average, analysts anticipate that Salesforce will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 1,936 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 17th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $258.64 per share, with a total value of $500,727.04. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 10,677 shares in the company, valued at $2,761,499.28. This trade represents a 22.15% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Parker Harris sold 134,662 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $234.70, for a total transaction of $31,605,171.40. Following the sale, the insider owned 139,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $32,803,314.90. This represents a 49.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Corporate insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Salesforce

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its holdings in Salesforce by 13.7% in the fourth 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 during the period. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 12.6% in 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 period. Bison Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 9.0% in the fourth quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 2,234 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $747,000 after buying an additional 184 shares during the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC grew its position in Salesforce by 3.7% during the second quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,958 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $807,000 after buying an additional 106 shares during the period. Finally, United Bank grew its position in Salesforce by 5.2% during the second quarter. United Bank now owns 10,198 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $2,781,000 after buying an additional 500 shares during the period. 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Salesforce News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q4 beat and robust EPS guidance — Salesforce reported a Q4 EPS beat with revenue up ~12% and issued FY27 EPS guidance (13.110–13.190) and Q1 EPS guidance (3.110–3.130) that were above Street expectations, supporting momentum in the print. Salesforce Q4 Earnings Beat
• Positive Sentiment: Large $50B buyback announced — management committed to a $50 billion repurchase program, a material capital-return signal that typically supports near-term share price by reducing float and showing confidence from the board. CNBC Buyback Article
• Positive Sentiment: Dividend increase — Salesforce raised its quarterly dividend to $0.44 (up from $0.42), modestly improving yield and reinforcing shareholder returns as part of the capital allocation story.
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst price-target moves are mixed — BMO trimmed its PT to $225 but kept an Outperform rating (still implying upside), and KeyCorp lowered a prior target but remains overweight; analysts are split between seeing long-term upside and short-term risk.
• Neutral Sentiment: Market-wide digesting of megacap earnings — broader futures and index moves are muted as markets parse results from Nvidia and Salesforce along with macro prints, so sector sentiment is a relevant offset. Proactive: Futures Digest
• Negative Sentiment: Guidance and AI fears created dovish reaction — some coverage notes revenue guidance was slightly softer than some expectations and investor concern about AI-driven disruption to SaaS persists; that narrative pressured shares in after-hours trading for a time. Proactive: Softer Guidance Reaction
• Negative Sentiment: Citi keeps a Hold and conservative PT — Citi maintained a Hold with a ~$197 target, signaling that at least some Street participants view near-term upside as limited absent clearer evidence AI monetization and revenue acceleration are durable. TipRanks / Citi Note

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.