Salesforce’s (CRM) “Buy” Rating Reiterated at Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC reissued their buy rating on shares of Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) in a research note released on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $400.00 target price on the CRM provider’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also weighed in on the company. Phillip Securities lowered 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. Roth Capital reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $325.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $250.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $315.00 price objective on Salesforce in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and set a $228.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have given a Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $261.15.

Salesforce Price Performance

NYSE:CRM opened at $256.60 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.84. The company has a 50-day moving average of $181.24 and a 200-day moving average of $182.55. Salesforce has a 52 week low of $146.32 and a 52 week high of $269.11. The company has a market capitalization of $210.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.39, a PEG ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 1.16.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.27 by $2.63. Salesforce had a net margin of 21.99% and a return on equity of 24.90%. The business had revenue of $11.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.33 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.91 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. 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, equities research analysts anticipate that Salesforce will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Salesforce

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 3.7% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. SFE Investment Counsel lifted its stake in Salesforce by 82.7% in the fourth quarter. SFE Investment Counsel now owns 17,394 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $4,608,000 after buying an additional 7,871 shares in the last quarter. Fluent Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce in the second quarter valued at approximately $2,265,000. Secured Retirement Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the first quarter worth $1,004,000. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its position in Salesforce by 2.5% in the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 127,739 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $23,846,000 after acquiring an additional 3,125 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

More Salesforce News

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Strong quarterly beat and raised outlook: 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, broadly topping expectations. Management raised its fiscal 2027 revenue outlook to approximately $46.1 billion-$46.4 billion and pointed to stronger bookings, lower attrition and potential organic growth reacceleration. Salesforce Stock Soars After Strong Results, Raised Outlook
• Positive Sentiment: AI partnership strengthens the growth narrative: Salesforce expanded its alliance with Anthropic, integrating Claude into Agentforce and launching “Claudeforce,” which places Salesforce CRM capabilities inside Claude. Investors viewed the agreement as evidence that Salesforce can monetize AI and benefit from rising usage; Agentforce and Data 360 annual recurring revenue approached $3.9 billion, with Agentforce ARR reaching about $1.5 billion. Salesforce Soars on Earnings Beat and AI Partnership
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst and institutional support: Wolfe Research upgraded CRM to “strong buy,” while several firms raised price targets, including Truist to $300, JPMorgan to $265 and Mizuho to $265. Heavy trading and reports of institutional buying suggest investors are reassessing the stock’s valuation and the broader software sector’s AI prospects.
• Neutral Sentiment: Profit quality warrants scrutiny: Strategic investment gains contributed $2.53 of the $5.90 adjusted EPS, including an estimated $2.7 billion unrealized gain tied to Salesforce’s Anthropic investment. This boosted reported earnings but may not represent recurring operating performance. Salesforce Stock Just Soared. Thank Anthropic.
• Negative Sentiment: Valuation and execution risks remain: After the rally, some analysts still see limited upside or downside, with UBS, Citi, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo retaining neutral or equivalent ratings. Critics also caution that Anthropic could control the AI orchestration layer, potentially limiting Salesforce’s long-term strategic leverage, while the rapid move may already price in much of the AI opportunity.

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.