Monness Crespi & Hardt Boosts Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Price Target to $266.00

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) had its price objective increased by investment analysts at Monness Crespi & Hardt from $222.00 to $266.00 in a note issued to investors on Thursday. The brokerage currently has a “buy” rating on the CRM provider’s stock. Monness Crespi & Hardt’s price target indicates a potential upside of 29.12% from the company’s previous close.

CRM has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Truist Financial downgraded shares of Salesforce from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. Bank of America began coverage on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Monday, May 18th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $160.00 price target on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Salesforce from $200.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 12th. DA Davidson reduced their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $200.00 to $175.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and issued a $185.00 price objective (down from $287.00) on shares of Salesforce in a report on Tuesday, July 21st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have assigned a Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $250.49.

Salesforce Stock Up 0.2%

Salesforce stock 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. Salesforce has a twelve month low of $146.32 and a twelve month high of $269.11. The stock has a market capitalization of $168.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.84, a PEG ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 EPS 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 business had revenue of $11.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.33 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.91 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue 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 expect that Salesforce will post 10.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Salesforce

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd grew its holdings in Salesforce by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd now owns 683,790 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $181,143,000 after purchasing an additional 24,332 shares during the last quarter. SFE Investment Counsel boosted its position in shares of Salesforce by 82.7% in the 4th quarter. SFE Investment Counsel now owns 17,394 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $4,608,000 after buying an additional 7,871 shares in the last quarter. Fluent Financial LLC acquired a new stake in Salesforce in the 2nd quarter valued at about $2,265,000. Secured Retirement Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Salesforce during the 1st quarter valued at about $1,004,000. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 2.5% in the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 127,739 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $23,846,000 after purchasing an additional 3,125 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Key Salesforce News

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Results exceeded expectations. Salesforce reported adjusted EPS of $5.90 versus the $3.27 consensus estimate, while revenue rose 10.8% year over year to $11.35 billion, slightly above forecasts. Salesforce Q2 Earnings and Revenues Top Estimates
• Positive Sentiment: Higher full-year outlook signals confidence. Salesforce raised fiscal 2027 guidance to $46.1 billion-$46.4 billion in revenue and $16.67-$16.71 in EPS. Its third-quarter EPS forecast of $3.42-$3.44 also exceeds the $3.16 analyst estimate. Salesforce Raises Annual Revenue Forecasts
• Positive Sentiment: AI adoption is becoming a growth catalyst. Agentforce annual recurring revenue reached $1.5 billion, and management said AI usage on the platform has increased sixfold. The figures support Salesforce’s argument that autonomous agents are expanding—not undermining—its CRM ecosystem. Salesforce Q2 Earnings Call Highlights
• Positive Sentiment: Expanded Anthropic partnership strengthens the AI narrative. The new “Claudeforce” integration brings Anthropic’s Claude into Salesforce workflows, data and business processes, potentially increasing enterprise engagement and supporting the company’s competitive positioning. Salesforce and Anthropic Announce Claudeforce
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst support adds momentum. Citizens JMP reiterated a Market Outperform rating with a $315 target, while Canaccord maintained a Buy rating and a $225 target. Citizens JMP Market Outperform Rating
• Neutral Sentiment: Broader technology sentiment also improved after Nvidia delivered strong results and an optimistic AI outlook, lifting confidence in continued enterprise AI spending. Nvidia Outlook Boosts Markets
• Negative Sentiment: Investors remain sensitive to whether AI agents could eventually cannibalize traditional software revenue, and software stocks continue to face elevated volatility. Salesforce’s forecast also includes expected acquisitions, making organic growth an important metric to monitor.

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.