Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Upgraded to Strong-Buy at Wolfe Research

Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating in a report issued on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other equities analysts have also issued reports on CRM. Piper Sandler lowered Salesforce from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Salesforce from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. KeyCorp downgraded Salesforce from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 8th. Monness Crespi & Hardt raised their price target on shares of Salesforce from $222.00 to $266.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group lowered their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $295.00 to $280.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have assigned a Buy rating, fifteen have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Salesforce presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $261.15.

Salesforce Price Performance

CRM stock opened at $252.15 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $179.14 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $182.03. The firm has a market cap of $206.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.99, a P/E/G ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15. Salesforce has a 12 month low of $146.32 and a 12 month high of $269.11.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.27 by $2.63. The business had revenue of $11.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.33 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 21.99% and a return on equity of 23.35%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business 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. On average, analysts anticipate that Salesforce will post 10.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Salesforce

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd boosted its stake in Salesforce by 3.7% during the fourth quarter. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd now owns 683,790 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $181,143,000 after acquiring an additional 24,332 shares in the last quarter. SFE Investment Counsel increased 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 purchasing an additional 7,871 shares in the last quarter. Fluent Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce during the second quarter valued at about $2,265,000. Secured Retirement Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 1st quarter worth about $1,004,000. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its position in shares of Salesforce by 2.5% during the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 127,739 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $23,846,000 after purchasing an additional 3,125 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Raised outlook and earnings beat: Salesforce reported adjusted EPS of $5.90, well above the $3.27 consensus, while revenue increased 10.8% year over year to $11.35 billion. Management raised fiscal 2027 revenue guidance to $46.1 billion-$46.4 billion and provided third-quarter EPS guidance above analyst expectations. Salesforce raises annual revenue forecasts on AI product momentum
• Positive Sentiment: Anthropic partnership strengthens AI strategy: Salesforce and Anthropic introduced “Claudeforce,” integrating Claude with Salesforce data, workflows, governance and CRM tools. The companies say the integration will allow sellers and agents to use Salesforce capabilities directly within Claude, potentially improving AI adoption and monetization. Salesforce and Anthropic Announce Claudeforce
• Positive Sentiment: Operating indicators showed momentum: Constant-currency remaining performance obligations accelerated 14%, while Agentforce and Data 360 annual recurring revenue approached $3.9 billion. Management also said AI usage on the platform has risen substantially, countering the “SaaSpocalypse” thesis that AI agents will replace incumbent software.
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst reactions were broadly constructive but mixed: JPMorgan, Mizuho, BMO, Truist and Monness raised targets or maintained bullish ratings, with targets ranging from $260 to $300 or higher. UBS, Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley and Citi also lifted targets but retained neutral or equal-weight ratings, reflecting valuation and execution concerns.
• Negative Sentiment: Earnings quality remains a concern: Strategic investment gains contributed approximately $2.53 of the $5.90 adjusted EPS, including an estimated $2.7 billion unrealized gain tied to Salesforce’s Anthropic investment. Such gains may not recur, and skeptics warn that Anthropic’s control of the AI orchestration layer could limit Salesforce’s long-term strategic upside. Salesforce Stock Just Soared. Thank Anthropic.

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.