BTIG Research Reaffirms Buy Rating for Salesforce (NYSE:CRM)

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reiterated by analysts at BTIG Research in a report released on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $255.00 price objective on the CRM provider’s stock. BTIG Research’s price target would suggest a potential upside of 36.71% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently commented on the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on Salesforce from $340.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on shares of Salesforce from $300.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $281.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Sanford C. Bernstein dropped their price target on shares of Salesforce from $223.00 to $194.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $375.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a report on Tuesday, February 24th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $280.21.

Salesforce Stock Performance

NYSE CRM opened at $186.52 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $172.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.88, a P/E/G ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.29. Salesforce has a 52-week low of $174.57 and a 52-week high of $296.05. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $196.90 and its 200 day moving average price is $229.82. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.05 by $0.76. Salesforce had a return on equity of 15.38% and a net margin of 17.96%.The firm had revenue of $11.20 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.18 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.78 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. 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, equities research analysts expect that Salesforce will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase 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 usually a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Neelie Kroes sold 3,893 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $238.70, for a total transaction of $929,259.10. Following the sale, the director owned 7,299 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,742,271.30. The trade was a 34.78% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Laura Alber acquired 2,571 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 19th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $194.58 per share, with a total value of $500,265.18. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 9,530 shares in the company, valued at $1,854,347.40. This represents a 36.94% increase in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Salesforce

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC purchased a new position in Salesforce during the 4th quarter valued at about $25,000. Marquette Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the third quarter valued at about $26,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Key Capital Management INC acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Finally, Gilpin Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.