Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Rating Increased to Strong-Buy at Wolfe Research

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) was upgraded by investment analysts at Wolfe Research from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report issued on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

Other research analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Salesforce from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, August 1st. Monness Crespi & Hardt upped their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $222.00 to $266.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. DA Davidson raised their target price on Salesforce from $175.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday. B. Riley Financial raised their target price on Salesforce from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Salesforce from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have assigned a Buy rating, fifteen have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Salesforce presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $261.15.

Salesforce Stock Performance

Shares of CRM stock opened at $252.15 on Thursday. Salesforce has a fifty-two week low of $146.32 and a fifty-two week high of $269.11. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $179.14 and its two-hundred day moving average is $182.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The firm has a market cap of $206.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.99, a PEG ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 1.16.

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Salesforce

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CRM. California State Teachers Retirement System increased its position in Salesforce by 13,260.5% in 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 buying an additional 186,677,290 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the second quarter worth $11,396,844,000. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 659,573 shares in the last quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP increased its holdings in Salesforce by 24,056.7% in the 4th 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 during the period. Finally, Capital International Investors raised its stake in shares of Salesforce by 13.3% in the 4th 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 Salesforce News

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Raised outlook and earnings beat: Salesforce reported adjusted EPS of $5.90, well above the $3.27 consensus, while revenue increased 10.8% year over year to $11.35 billion. Management raised fiscal 2027 revenue guidance to $46.1 billion-$46.4 billion and provided third-quarter EPS guidance above analyst expectations. Salesforce raises annual revenue forecasts on AI product momentum
• Positive Sentiment: Anthropic partnership strengthens AI strategy: Salesforce and Anthropic introduced “Claudeforce,” integrating Claude with Salesforce data, workflows, governance and CRM tools. The companies say the integration will allow sellers and agents to use Salesforce capabilities directly within Claude, potentially improving AI adoption and monetization. Salesforce and Anthropic Announce Claudeforce
• Positive Sentiment: Operating indicators showed momentum: Constant-currency remaining performance obligations accelerated 14%, while Agentforce and Data 360 annual recurring revenue approached $3.9 billion. Management also said AI usage on the platform has risen substantially, countering the “SaaSpocalypse” thesis that AI agents will replace incumbent software.
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst reactions were broadly constructive but mixed: JPMorgan, Mizuho, BMO, Truist and Monness raised targets or maintained bullish ratings, with targets ranging from $260 to $300 or higher. UBS, Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley and Citi also lifted targets but retained neutral or equal-weight ratings, reflecting valuation and execution concerns.
• Negative Sentiment: Earnings quality remains a concern: Strategic investment gains contributed approximately $2.53 of the $5.90 adjusted EPS, including an estimated $2.7 billion unrealized gain tied to Salesforce’s Anthropic investment. Such gains may not recur, and skeptics warn that Anthropic’s control of the AI orchestration layer could limit Salesforce’s long-term strategic upside. Salesforce Stock Just Soared. Thank Anthropic.

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.