Sanford C. Bernstein Issues Positive Forecast for Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Stock Price

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) had its price target raised by research analysts at Sanford C. Bernstein from $173.00 to $195.00 in a note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “underperform” rating on the CRM provider’s stock. Sanford C. Bernstein’s price target points to a potential downside of 21.94% from the stock’s previous close.

Other equities analysts have also issued research reports about the company. Raymond James Financial reiterated a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $400.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday. Truist Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $300.00 price objective (up from $280.00) on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Wolfe Research downgraded Salesforce from an “outperform” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have issued a Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $256.69.

Salesforce Stock Performance

CRM stock traded up $44.18 during trading on Thursday, reaching $249.80. The company had a trading volume of 25,516,033 shares, compared to its average volume of 13,713,079. Salesforce has a twelve month low of $146.32 and a twelve month high of $269.11. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $177.13 and a 200-day simple moving average of $181.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79. The company has a market cap of $204.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 1.16.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.33 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.91 EPS. 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, sell-side analysts expect that Salesforce will post 10.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. California State Teachers Retirement System grew its stake in shares of Salesforce by 13,260.5% during the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 188,085,056 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $29,465,405,000 after purchasing an additional 186,677,290 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in Salesforce in the second quarter valued at approximately $11,396,844,000. J. Stern & Co. LLP raised its position 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 purchasing an additional 47,189,352 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the second quarter worth about $1,914,086,000. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth approximately $3,182,951,000. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Key Headlines Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Sales and earnings beat expectations. Salesforce reported adjusted earnings of $5.90 per share, well above the $3.27 consensus estimate, while revenue reached $11.35 billion versus expectations of approximately $11.33 billion. Revenue increased 10.8% year over year. Salesforce Stock Soars After Strong Results, Raised Outlook
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce raised its fiscal 2027 outlook. Full-year revenue guidance is now $46.1 billion to $46.4 billion, while adjusted EPS guidance is $16.67 to $16.71. Third-quarter EPS guidance of $3.42 to $3.44 also exceeds the $3.16 analyst consensus, signaling confidence in organic growth and expected acquisitions. Salesforce raises annual revenue forecasts on AI product momentum
• Positive Sentiment: AI momentum eased fears that AI agents could undermine Salesforce’s software business. Agentforce ARR reached about $1.5 billion, while combined Agentforce and Data 360 ARR approached $3.9 billion. Agentforce grew more than 240% year over year, and customer AI usage reportedly surged sixfold. CRM Stock Heads For Best Day in 6 Years
• Positive Sentiment: The expanded Anthropic partnership adds strategic support. “Claudeforce” will combine Anthropic’s Claude with Salesforce data, workflows and governance, allowing enterprise users to access CRM capabilities through AI-driven experiences. Salesforce also benefited from a reported $2.6 billion gain on strategic investments, including its Anthropic stake. Salesforce and Anthropic Announce Claudeforce
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst sentiment improved but remains divided. Truist raised its target to $300 and maintained a buy rating, while Needham kept a buy rating with a $400 target and BMO upgraded its target to $260. However, UBS, Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley raised targets while retaining neutral or equal-weight ratings, with targets below the current trading level.
• Negative Sentiment: Valuation and volatility remain risks. Several analysts’ below-market targets suggest that the rally may have priced in much of the earnings and AI improvement, while software stocks remain vulnerable to sharp moves as investors reassess the impact of AI on traditional applications.

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.