KeyCorp Comments on Salesforce’s Q3 Earnings (NYSE:CRM)

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) – Equities researchers at KeyCorp issued their Q3 2027 earnings estimates for shares of Salesforce in a note issued to investors on Wednesday, May 27th. KeyCorp analyst J. Ader anticipates that the CRM provider will post earnings of $2.13 per share for the quarter. KeyCorp currently has a “Overweight” rating and a $290.00 price target on the stock. The consensus estimate for Salesforce’s current full-year earnings is $10.30 per share. KeyCorp also issued estimates for Salesforce’s FY2028 earnings at $9.90 EPS.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.13 by $0.75. The company had revenue of $11.13 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.58 EPS. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 14.060-14.120 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 3.250-3.270 EPS.

CRM has been the topic of a number of other reports. Oppenheimer lowered their price objective on Salesforce from $275.00 to $250.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Salesforce from $398.00 to $287.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. Citigroup restated a “market outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Northland Securities lowered their price objective on Salesforce from $267.00 to $229.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 10th. Finally, BTIG Research restated a “buy” rating and issued a $255.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have assigned a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Salesforce currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $257.97.

Salesforce Trading Up 0.1%

Shares of Salesforce stock opened at $185.85 on Monday. Salesforce has a 52-week low of $163.52 and a 52-week high of $276.80. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $181.31 and its 200 day simple moving average is $208.71. The stock has a market capitalization of $152.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.51, a P/E/G ratio of 1.15 and a beta of 1.16. 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 Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 11th will be given a dividend of $0.44 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 11th. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is currently 20.37%.

Salesforce declared that its board has authorized a stock buyback program on Monday, March 16th that authorizes the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the CRM provider to repurchase up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 2,570 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $194.62 per share, for a total transaction of $500,173.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 13,689 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,664,153.18. This represents a 23.11% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Laura Alber purchased 2,571 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 19th. The shares were bought at an average price of $194.58 per share, for a total transaction of $500,265.18. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 9,530 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,854,347.40. This trade represents a 36.94% increase in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Corporate insiders own 3.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of CRM. Brighton Jones LLC increased its position in shares of Salesforce by 13.7% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 25,668 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $8,582,000 after purchasing an additional 3,102 shares during the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Salesforce by 12.6% in the fourth 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 last quarter. Bison Wealth LLC increased its position 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 purchasing an additional 184 shares during the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Salesforce by 3.7% in the second quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,958 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $807,000 after purchasing an additional 106 shares during the last quarter. Finally, United Bank increased its position in shares of Salesforce by 5.2% in the second quarter. United Bank now owns 10,198 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $2,781,000 after purchasing an additional 500 shares during the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Salesforce News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce announced a landmark partnership with FIFA for the 2026 World Cup and 2027 Women’s World Cup, which could showcase its AI-driven Agentforce 360 platform to a massive global audience and potentially drive future enterprise demand. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: KeyCorp kept an Overweight rating and a $290 price target on Salesforce, while modeling earnings above consensus for FY2027, signaling continued analyst confidence in the company’s profit growth. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Recent commentary highlights Salesforce’s strong momentum, helped by its AI strategy, Agentforce rollout, recurring revenue base, and expanding free cash flow, which may keep long-term investors interested. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce’s presentation at the Evercore Global TMT Conference and valuation-focused coverage suggest investors are still reassessing how much of the AI and Agentforce optimism is already priced in. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Bridgewater Associates reportedly sold Salesforce, which can pressure sentiment in the near term, although the article argues that institutional selling may create a better entry point for patient investors. Article Title

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.