Wall Street Zen Upgrades Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) to “Buy”

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) was upgraded by analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report issued on Saturday.

A number of other research firms have also recently weighed in on CRM. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Salesforce from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of Salesforce from $398.00 to $287.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. UBS Group reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $400.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $325.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have issued a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $257.97.

Salesforce Stock Down 1.5%

CRM stock opened at $185.85 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $181.31 and a 200 day moving average price of $208.90. Salesforce has a 12 month low of $163.52 and a 12 month high of $276.80. The company has a market cap of $152.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.13 by $0.75. Salesforce had a net margin of 18.73% and a return on equity of 18.72%. The company had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.05 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.58 EPS. Salesforce’s quarterly revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 14.060-14.120 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 3.250-3.270 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Salesforce will post 10.13 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Insider Activity

In related news, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 2,570 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $194.62 per share, for a total transaction of $500,173.40. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 13,689 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,664,153.18. The trade was a 23.11% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Laura Alber acquired 2,571 shares of the business’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 acquisition, the director owned 9,530 shares in the company, 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 hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Byrne Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Byrne Asset Management LLC now owns 4,331 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $1,147,000 after buying an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Mathes Company Inc. grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 0.4% during the third quarter. Mathes Company Inc. now owns 12,558 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $2,976,000 after buying an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 0.3% during the third quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 14,943 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $3,548,000 after buying an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. Beacon Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 3.5% during the third quarter. Beacon Capital Management LLC now owns 1,372 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $325,000 after buying an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fulcrum Asset Management LLP grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 1.7% during the third quarter. Fulcrum Asset Management LLP now owns 2,774 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $657,000 after buying an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce News Roundup

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.