Morgan Stanley Reiterates “Equal Weight” Rating for Salesforce (NYSE:CRM)

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM)‘s stock had its “equal weight” rating reissued by investment analysts at Morgan Stanley in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $185.00 price target on the CRM provider’s stock, down from their prior price target of $287.00. Morgan Stanley’s target price suggests a potential upside of 6.43% from the company’s current price.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on CRM. Barclays upgraded Salesforce from an “overweight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. BTIG Research reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $255.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. Bank of America started coverage on Salesforce in a report on Monday, May 18th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $160.00 price objective for the company. Canaccord Genuity Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $225.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Tuesday, June 16th. Finally, Wolfe Research downgraded shares of Salesforce from an “outperform” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have given a Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $249.51.

Salesforce Price Performance

CRM stock opened at $173.82 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $170.57 and a 200-day moving average of $190.02. The firm has a market capitalization of $142.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.92 and a beta of 1.18. Salesforce has a 12 month low of $146.32 and a 12 month high of $274.00. 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 posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.13 by $0.75. Salesforce had a net margin of 18.73% and a return on equity of 18.72%. The business had revenue of $11.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.05 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.58 EPS. Salesforce’s revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 14.060-14.120 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 3.250-3.270 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Salesforce will post 10.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Salesforce

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce during the fourth quarter worth approximately $25,000. Key Capital Management INC purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Gilpin Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Legacy Bridge LLC bought a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter valued at $27,000. Finally, Costello Asset Management INC raised its position in Salesforce by 410.3% in the 1st quarter. Costello Asset Management INC now owns 148 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 119 shares during the period. 80.43% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.