Barclays Has Lowered Expectations for Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Stock Price

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) had its price target dropped by analysts at Barclays from $265.00 to $252.00 in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “overweight” rating on the CRM provider’s stock. Barclays‘s price objective suggests a potential upside of 28.81% from the company’s current price.

Several other research firms have also weighed in on CRM. Bank of America decreased their price target on Salesforce from $325.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, November 17th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $400.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday. Truist Financial dropped their price target on shares of Salesforce from $400.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on shares of Salesforce from $300.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Finally, Arete Research raised shares of Salesforce to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have issued a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Salesforce currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $294.47.

Salesforce Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CRM traded up $3.89 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $195.64. 9,992,991 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 12,065,592. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.98. Salesforce has a 1 year low of $174.57 and a 1 year high of $304.92. The company’s 50-day moving average is $226.45 and its two-hundred day moving average is $238.86. The company has a market capitalization of $183.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.15, a PEG ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.27.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.05 by $0.76. The company had revenue of $11.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.18 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 14.41% and a net margin of 17.91%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.78 earnings per share. 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 analysts anticipate that Salesforce will post 7.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Salesforce

In other Salesforce news, Director G Mason Morfit acquired 96,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 5th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $260.58 per share, for a total transaction of $25,015,680.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director owned 2,994,509 shares in the company, valued at approximately $780,309,155.22. This trade represents a 3.31% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 1,936 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 17th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $258.64 per share, for a total transaction of $500,727.04. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 10,677 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,761,499.28. This trade represents a 22.15% increase in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Corporate insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in CRM. J. Stern & Co. LLP grew its stake in Salesforce by 24,056.7% in the fourth quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 47,385,511 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $12,552,896,000 after purchasing an additional 47,189,352 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce in the 4th quarter worth approximately $3,182,951,000. Capital World Investors grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 159.0% in the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 17,325,206 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $4,106,255,000 after buying an additional 10,636,161 shares during the last quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. raised its stake in shares of Salesforce by 924.7% during the 4th quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 3,883,610 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $1,028,807,000 after acquiring an additional 3,504,605 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in Salesforce by 27,361.5% during the second quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,424,169 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $933,737,000 after acquiring an additional 3,411,700 shares during the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

More Salesforce News

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q4 beat and robust EPS guidance — Salesforce reported a Q4 EPS beat with revenue up ~12% and issued FY27 EPS guidance (13.110–13.190) and Q1 EPS guidance (3.110–3.130) that were above Street expectations, supporting momentum in the print. Salesforce Q4 Earnings Beat
• Positive Sentiment: Large $50B buyback announced — management committed to a $50 billion repurchase program, a material capital-return signal that typically supports near-term share price by reducing float and showing confidence from the board. CNBC Buyback Article
• Positive Sentiment: Dividend increase — Salesforce raised its quarterly dividend to $0.44 (up from $0.42), modestly improving yield and reinforcing shareholder returns as part of the capital allocation story.
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst price-target moves are mixed — BMO trimmed its PT to $225 but kept an Outperform rating (still implying upside), and KeyCorp lowered a prior target but remains overweight; analysts are split between seeing long-term upside and short-term risk.
• Neutral Sentiment: Market-wide digesting of megacap earnings — broader futures and index moves are muted as markets parse results from Nvidia and Salesforce along with macro prints, so sector sentiment is a relevant offset. Proactive: Futures Digest
• Negative Sentiment: Guidance and AI fears created dovish reaction — some coverage notes revenue guidance was slightly softer than some expectations and investor concern about AI-driven disruption to SaaS persists; that narrative pressured shares in after-hours trading for a time. Proactive: Softer Guidance Reaction
• Negative Sentiment: Citi keeps a Hold and conservative PT — Citi maintained a Hold with a ~$197 target, signaling that at least some Street participants view near-term upside as limited absent clearer evidence AI monetization and revenue acceleration are durable. TipRanks / Citi Note

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.