Salesforce’s (CRM) “Equal Weight” Rating Reiterated at Stephens

Stephens reiterated their equal weight rating on shares of Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) in a research report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. Stephens currently has a $289.00 price target on the CRM provider’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also issued reports on CRM. KeyCorp lowered Salesforce from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 8th. Argus upped their target price on Salesforce from $290.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 31st. Freedom Broker raised their price target on Salesforce from $230.00 to $295.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Mizuho lifted their price target on Salesforce from $265.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 16th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised Salesforce from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 12th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty have assigned a Buy rating, fourteen have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $275.14.

Salesforce Stock Performance

Salesforce stock opened at $237.56 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $208.91 and its 200 day simple moving average is $189.22. The company has a current ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02. The firm has a market capitalization of $195.51 billion, a PE ratio of 21.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 1.20. Salesforce has a 1-year low of $146.32 and a 1-year high of $269.11.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.27 by $2.63. The firm had revenue of $11.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.33 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 21.99% and a return on equity of 24.90%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $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 expect that Salesforce will post 12.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 17th will be given a dividend of $0.44 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 17th. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is 16.04%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Salesforce

In related news, Director Craig Conway sold 4,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.61, for a total value of $1,172,745.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 5,437 shares in the company, valued at $1,416,936.57. The trade was a 45.29% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 3.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Salesforce

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in CRM. Security National Bank of Sioux City Iowa IA bought a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 2nd quarter valued at $52,000. Wellington Altus USA Inc. lifted its stake in Salesforce by 117.2% in the second quarter. Wellington Altus USA Inc. now owns 315 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $49,000 after purchasing an additional 170 shares during the last quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in Salesforce by 184.5% in the second quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 17,983 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $2,817,000 after purchasing an additional 11,663 shares during the last quarter. Marathon Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in Salesforce by 1.2% during the second quarter. Marathon Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 21,267 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $3,332,000 after buying an additional 260 shares during the period. Finally, ABS Direct Equity Fund LLC bought a new position in shares of Salesforce during the second quarter valued at about $25,000. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Salesforce News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce set a fiscal 2030 revenue target of more than $63 billion, above market expectations. Management said artificial intelligence, data products and higher customer spending should support long-term growth and help counter fears that AI could disrupt its core software business. Salesforce issues revenue target of over $63 billion for fiscal 2030
• Positive Sentiment: Several firms raised their price targets, including Stifel, Canaccord Genuity, BMO Capital Markets, Citizens JMP, Stephens and Wells Fargo. Targets generally range from $250 to $315, reflecting optimism that Agentforce and other AI products can accelerate revenue and customer expansion. Six Analysts Turn Bullish on Salesforce
• Positive Sentiment: BNP Paribas described business activity as improving, while Salesforce’s broader AIforce strategy connects CRM data with partners including Google Cloud, Anthropic, Nvidia and Snap. These relationships could increase Agentforce usage and strengthen Salesforce’s enterprise ecosystem.
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce unveiled Koa, its first internally developed AI model for CRM reasoning, and AIforce, a platform intended to make CRM data available across multiple applications. However, Koa is not yet broadly available, limiting its immediate effect on revenue or earnings. Why Salesforce’s Homegrown AI Model Won’t Move the Stock Until 2027
• Negative Sentiment: UBS said AIforce could drive usage but cautioned that its pricing is currently too high. Investors therefore remain uncertain whether Agentforce adoption will translate into substantial incremental revenue and acceptable customer returns. Salesforce’s AIforce Offering has Potential to Drive Usage but Price Point is Too High
• Negative Sentiment: The stock has rallied sharply toward its 52-week high, so investors may be taking profits while waiting for proof of near-term AI monetization. A recent system outage and mixed partner feedback on pricing add to execution concerns. Why Salesforce Stock Dropped Despite Analysts Boosting Targets

Salesforce Company Profile

Salesforce, Inc is a cloud-based software company that provides customer relationship management (CRM) technology and related enterprise applications. Its platform helps organizations manage sales, customer service, marketing, commerce, data analytics and business operations through subscription-based software and cloud services.

The company’s product portfolio includes Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Commerce Cloud, Data Cloud and the Salesforce Platform. Salesforce also offers Slack for workplace collaboration, Tableau for data visualization and analytics, MuleSoft for application integration, and artificial intelligence capabilities, including its Agentforce platform for building and deploying AI agents.

Founded in 1999, Salesforce is headquartered in San Francisco, California, and serves businesses and organizations across a broad range of industries and geographic markets worldwide.