Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Given “Buy” Rating at Needham & Company LLC

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by Needham & Company LLC in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $400.00 price objective on the CRM provider’s stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 57.13% from the stock’s previous close.

CRM has been the subject of several other reports. Citizens Jmp restated a “market outperform” rating and set a $315.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Tuesday, August 25th. UBS Group boosted their target price on Salesforce from $210.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 27th. Canaccord Genuity Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $225.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a report on Tuesday, August 25th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $205.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 27th. Finally, Wedbush initiated coverage on Salesforce in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. They issued an “outperform” rating on the stock. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have issued a Buy rating, fifteen have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Salesforce has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $266.50.

Salesforce Trading Down 1.4%

NYSE:CRM traded down $3.54 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $254.57. 6,927,339 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 14,047,511. The firm has a market cap of $209.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.21, a PEG ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 1.20. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $185.49 and a 200 day simple moving average of $183.44. Salesforce has a 52-week low of $146.32 and a 52-week high of $269.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 0.84 and a quick ratio of 0.84.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.27 by $2.63. The business had revenue of $11.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.33 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 24.90% and a net margin of 21.99%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $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. As a group, analysts predict that Salesforce will post 12.64 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of CRM. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al purchased a new position in Salesforce in the second quarter valued at about $48,110,000. California State Teachers Retirement System raised its position in shares of 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 valued at $29,465,405,000 after purchasing an additional 186,677,290 shares in the last quarter. DMC Group LLC raised its position in shares of Salesforce by 43.5% in the 2nd quarter. DMC Group LLC now owns 2,457 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $385,000 after purchasing an additional 745 shares in the last quarter. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC boosted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 154.9% during the 2nd quarter. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC now owns 11,477 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $1,798,000 after buying an additional 6,974 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Guardian Wealth Advisors LLC NC grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 7.7% during the second quarter. Guardian Wealth Advisors LLC NC now owns 4,412 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $691,000 after buying an additional 317 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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: Analysts raised their targets: Cantor Fitzgerald, BTIG Research and Argus lifted their price targets to $300, while maintaining bullish ratings. The new targets imply meaningful upside and reinforce optimism that Salesforce’s earnings growth and AI monetization can continue. Argus Increases Salesforce Price Target
• Positive Sentiment: Strong results eased disruption concerns: Salesforce’s latest quarter produced $11.35 billion in revenue and adjusted EPS of $5.90, both ahead of expectations. Revenue increased about 11% year over year, while Agentforce recurring revenue more than tripled, supporting the view that AI is becoming a growth driver rather than a threat to the company’s software business. Salesforce Agentforce Growth Catalyst
• Positive Sentiment: AI ecosystem expansion: Salesforce’s Anthropic partnership, branded Claudeforce, and investments involving workforce-data platform HiBob and AgentExchange broaden its enterprise AI offerings and could create additional monetization opportunities. Salesforce Workforce AI and AgentExchange
• Neutral Sentiment: Expectations are now elevated: Management raised fiscal 2027 guidance, but investors increasingly expect revenue growth to accelerate. The stock’s next catalyst may depend on whether Salesforce can convert strong AI adoption into sustained subscription growth and bookings.
• Negative Sentiment: Short-term technical pressure: The stock has rallied sharply since its August lows, pushing its relative strength index above 80, a level commonly associated with overbought conditions. Profit-taking after the post-earnings surge is likely contributing to the current weakness. Salesforce Looks Overbought
• Negative Sentiment: Some earnings estimates were reduced: Northland Securities raised its full-year fiscal 2027 EPS forecast but lowered estimates for the third and fourth quarters and fiscal 2028, signaling lingering concerns about the pace and durability of growth.

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.