Truist Financial Reaffirms Buy Rating for Salesforce (NYSE:CRM)

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by research analysts at Truist Financial in a note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $300.00 price objective on the CRM provider’s stock, up from their previous price objective of $280.00. Truist Financial’s target price suggests a potential upside of 45.62% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other analysts have also recently commented on the company. Wolfe Research cut Salesforce from an “outperform” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. Roth Capital restated a “buy” rating and set a $325.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Sanford C. Bernstein restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday. Morgan Stanley restated an “equal weight” rating and set a $185.00 price target (down from $287.00) on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Tuesday, July 21st. Finally, Phillip Securities lowered shares of Salesforce from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $253.00 to $166.00 in a research note on Monday, June 29th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have given a Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $251.00.

Salesforce Stock Performance

Shares of CRM opened at $206.01 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $177.13 and a two-hundred day moving average of $181.60. The stock has a market cap of $168.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.84, a P/E/G ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 1.16. Salesforce has a one year low of $146.32 and a one year high of $269.11. 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 (NYSE:CRM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.27 by $2.63. Salesforce had a return on equity of 18.72% and a net margin of 18.73%.The company had revenue of $11.35 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.33 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.91 EPS. The firm’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. As a group, research analysts predict that Salesforce will post 10.27 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Salesforce

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. California State Teachers Retirement System grew its holdings in Salesforce by 13,260.5% during the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 188,085,056 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $29,465,405,000 after acquiring an additional 186,677,290 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce during the second quarter worth $11,396,844,000. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Salesforce by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 50,080,230 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $13,286,909,000 after buying an additional 659,573 shares during the last quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP raised its stake in Salesforce by 24,056.7% in the fourth quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 47,385,511 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $12,552,896,000 after buying an additional 47,189,352 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors raised its stake in Salesforce by 13.3% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 22,721,010 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $6,019,199,000 after buying an additional 2,669,891 shares in the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Key Stories Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Earnings beat expectations: Salesforce reported adjusted earnings of $5.90 per share, well above the $3.27 analyst consensus, while revenue rose 10.8% year over year to $11.35 billion, slightly exceeding estimates. Salesforce Q2 Earnings and Revenues Top Estimates
• Positive Sentiment: Raised outlook: Management increased fiscal 2027 guidance to $46.1 billion-$46.4 billion in revenue and $16.67-$16.71 in EPS. Third-quarter EPS guidance of $3.42-$3.44 also exceeds the $3.16 consensus, signaling confidence in sustained growth. Salesforce Raises Annual Revenue Forecasts on AI Product Momentum
• Positive Sentiment: AI adoption is accelerating: Agentforce annual recurring revenue reached $1.5 billion, and management said AI usage on the platform increased sixfold. These metrics help counter fears that generative AI could replace traditional enterprise software. Salesforce Q2 2027 Earnings Call Highlights
• Positive Sentiment: Anthropic partnership expands: Salesforce and Anthropic introduced “Claudeforce,” integrating Claude with Salesforce data, workflows and 37 prebuilt sales skills. The collaboration supports Salesforce’s effort to make AI agents a growth engine and reinforces its competitive positioning. Salesforce and Anthropic Announce Claudeforce
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst sentiment improved: Needham reaffirmed its Buy rating with a $400 target, while Monness Crespi & Hardt raised its target to $266 and Cantor Fitzgerald maintained Overweight with a $250 target. These targets imply substantial upside but do not guarantee future performance.
• Negative Sentiment: Risks remain: Revenue growth remains near 11%, and Salesforce’s stock has been volatile amid concerns about AI-driven software disruption. The large investment gain cited in the quarter may also be less recurring than operating results.

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.