Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Coverage Initiated by Analysts at The Goldman Sachs Group

Research analysts at The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on shares of Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) in a report released on Monday. The brokerage set a “buy” rating and a $330.00 price target on the CRM provider’s stock. The Goldman Sachs Group’s target price suggests a potential upside of 26.91% from the company’s current price.

Several other equities analysts also recently commented on the company. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and set a $430.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a report on Friday, October 17th. Oppenheimer lowered their target price on shares of Salesforce from $315.00 to $300.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, December 1st. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $260.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price target on shares of Salesforce from $280.00 to $275.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 4th. Finally, Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Monday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have assigned a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $326.29.

Salesforce Price Performance

NYSE CRM opened at $260.03 on Monday. Salesforce has a fifty-two week low of $221.96 and a fifty-two week high of $367.09. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $250.32 and its two-hundred day moving average is $251.43. The firm has a market cap of $243.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.98.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 3rd. The CRM provider reported $3.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.86 by $0.39. Salesforce had a return on equity of 14.41% and a net margin of 17.91%.The company had revenue of $10.26 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.27 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.41 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. Salesforce has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.020-3.040 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Salesforce will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Salesforce

In other Salesforce news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 122 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction on Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $259.00, for a total transaction of $31,598.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 11,911,571 shares in the company, valued at $3,085,096,889. The trade was a 0.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 1,936 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 17th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $258.64 per share, for a total transaction of $500,727.04. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 10,677 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,761,499.28. This trade represents a 22.15% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 152,784 shares of company stock worth $36,173,287 over the last quarter. 3.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Salesforce

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Painted Porch Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Salesforce by 260.0% during the 2nd quarter. Painted Porch Advisors LLC now owns 90 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. Board of the Pension Protection Fund acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the fourth quarter worth approximately $26,000. Evolution Wealth Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Salesforce in the second quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Marquette Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Finally, Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc grew its position in Salesforce by 383.3% during the 2nd quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 116 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 92 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

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.