Citigroup Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Stock Price

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) had its price objective dropped by equities researchers at Citigroup from $200.00 to $188.00 in a research note issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “neutral” rating on the CRM provider’s stock. Citigroup’s price target would indicate a potential upside of 9.48% from the stock’s current price.

Other equities research analysts have also issued reports about the company. BTIG Research restated a “buy” rating and issued a $255.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Friday, April 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $281.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. TD Cowen reduced their price objective on Salesforce from $325.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. KeyCorp cut their price target on Salesforce from $400.00 to $300.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. Finally, DA Davidson cut their price target on Salesforce from $235.00 to $200.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have given a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $278.82.

Salesforce Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:CRM traded down $5.76 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $171.73. The company had a trading volume of 5,598,051 shares, compared to its average volume of 12,857,627. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 0.76 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The company has a market cap of $140.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.06, a PEG ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.14. Salesforce has a 12-month low of $163.52 and a 12-month high of $296.05. The company has a fifty day moving average of $186.13 and a two-hundred day moving average of $217.79.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.05 by $0.76. The firm had revenue of $11.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.18 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 15.38% and a net margin of 17.96%.Salesforce’s revenue was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.78 EPS. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 13.110-13.190 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.110-3.130 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Salesforce will post 9.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Monday, March 16th that allows the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the CRM provider to buy up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Laura Alber acquired 2,571 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 19th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $194.58 per share, with a total value of $500,265.18. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 9,530 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,854,347.40. This trade represents a 36.94% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 2,570 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $194.62 per share, with a total value of $500,173.40. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 13,689 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,664,153.18. The trade was a 23.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. 3.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Rockland Trust Co. raised its position in Salesforce by 1,145.6% in the 3rd quarter. Rockland Trust Co. now owns 13,066 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $3,097,000 after purchasing an additional 12,017 shares during the period. Alps Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Salesforce by 98.3% during the third quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 21,455 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $5,085,000 after acquiring an additional 10,633 shares during the period. Midwest Trust Co increased its position in shares of Salesforce by 2.3% during the third quarter. Midwest Trust Co now owns 187,071 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $44,336,000 after acquiring an additional 4,233 shares during the period. Jones Financial Companies Lllp increased its position in shares of Salesforce by 15.1% during the third quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 467,551 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $113,420,000 after acquiring an additional 61,270 shares during the period. Finally, AGF Management Ltd. increased its position in shares of Salesforce by 42.2% during the third quarter. AGF Management Ltd. now owns 281,054 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $66,610,000 after acquiring an additional 83,403 shares during the period. Institutional investors 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.