Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) has earned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the forty-seven ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, sixteen have given a hold rating, twenty-six have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $261.1538.

CRM has been the subject of several analyst reports. Piper Sandler cut Salesforce from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Wedbush began coverage on Salesforce in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. They set an “outperform” rating for the company. Phillip Securities downgraded Salesforce from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $253.00 to $166.00 in a report on Monday, June 29th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Salesforce from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 12th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Salesforce from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday.

Salesforce Price Performance

Salesforce stock opened at $252.15 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $179.14 and a 200-day simple moving average of $182.03. The stock has a market cap of $206.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 1.16. Salesforce has a 12-month low of $146.32 and a 12-month high of $269.11.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.27 by $2.63. Salesforce had a return on equity of 23.35% and a net margin of 21.99%.The firm had revenue of $11.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.33 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.91 earnings per share. Salesforce’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 16.670-16.710 EPS and its Q3 2027 guidance at 3.420-3.440 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Salesforce will post 10.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Key Headlines Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Strong quarterly performance: Salesforce reported adjusted EPS of $5.90, well above the $3.27 consensus, while revenue rose 10.8% year over year to $11.35 billion, slightly exceeding expectations. Profit was also helped by gains on strategic investments, including Salesforce’s stake in Anthropic. Salesforce stock jumps on AI growth and Anthropic investment gain
• Positive Sentiment: Raised outlook: Management lifted fiscal 2027 revenue guidance to $46.1 billion-$46.4 billion and EPS guidance to $16.67-$16.71. Third-quarter EPS guidance of $3.42-$3.44 also topped the $3.16 analyst estimate, signaling confidence in demand and profitability. Salesforce raises annual revenue forecasts on AI product momentum
• Positive Sentiment: AI adoption is gaining traction: Current remaining performance obligations accelerated 14% in constant currency, while Agentforce and Data 360 annual recurring revenue approached $3.9 billion. Reports also highlighted a sixfold increase in AI usage, supporting the view that AI may expand Salesforce’s platform rather than replace it. Jim Cramer says Nvidia and Salesforce earnings upended two bear narratives
• Positive Sentiment: Anthropic partnership expands Salesforce’s AI offering: The “Claudeforce” initiative integrates Anthropic’s Claude with Salesforce workflows, data and governance, including prebuilt sales skills. Investors view the partnership as a potential catalyst for Agentforce adoption and AI monetization. Salesforce and Anthropic announce Claudeforce
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst reaction improved: JPMorgan, Mizuho, BMO, Truist and Monness Crespi raised their price targets, with targets ranging from $260 to $300; Needham maintained a Buy rating with a $400 target. The results were widely described as weakening the “SaaSpocalypse” bear thesis. Salesforce Q2 results squash SaaSpocalypse fears

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. California State Teachers Retirement System lifted its position in Salesforce by 13,260.5% in the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 188,085,056 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $29,465,405,000 after acquiring an additional 186,677,290 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce during the second quarter worth about $11,396,844,000. J. Stern & Co. LLP grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 24,056.7% during the fourth quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 47,385,511 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $12,552,896,000 after purchasing an additional 47,189,352 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the second quarter worth about $1,914,086,000. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the 4th quarter valued at about $3,182,951,000. 80.43% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.