Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Shares Gap Up on Analyst Upgrade

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) shares gapped up prior to trading on Monday after Bank of America upgraded the stock from an underperform rating to a buy rating. The stock had previously closed at $229.13, but opened at $236.65. Bank of America now has a $285.00 price target on the stock, up from their previous price target of $160.00. Salesforce shares last traded at $235.4810, with a volume of 1,977,314 shares traded.

CRM has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, August 27th. Stephens reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and issued a $289.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a report on Friday, September 18th. Scotiabank lowered Salesforce from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Friday, September 11th. Finally, KeyCorp cut Salesforce from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 8th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-one have issued a Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $278.12.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director David Blair Kirk bought 4,176 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 18th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $239.33 per share, for a total transaction of $999,442.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 18,748 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,486,958.84. This represents a 28.66% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Craig Conway sold 4,500 shares of Salesforce 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 directly owned 5,437 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,416,936.57. The trade was a 45.29% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders own 3.50% of the company’s stock.

More Salesforce News

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Bank of America upgraded Salesforce from Underperform to Buy and raised its price target from $160 to $285. The rare double upgrade reflects greater confidence that AI demand can accelerate Salesforce’s growth and improve the valuation case. Salesforce Just Got a Rare Double Upgrade—What Changed?
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce agreed to acquire Loops, an AI analytics platform, for an estimated $30 million. The technology is expected to strengthen Tableau and Slack by proactively identifying business trends, anomalies and recommended actions within customers’ workflows. Salesforce to buy AI analytics platform Loops for Tableau
• Positive Sentiment: Agentforce adoption is becoming more financially meaningful: the platform reportedly exceeded $1.5 billion in annual recurring revenue, while remaining performance obligations rose about 14% to $33.5 billion. Usage-based pricing could also help Salesforce capture value from AI automation rather than relying solely on per-seat subscriptions. Bear to bull: A double upgrade of Salesforce illustrates the folly of the SaaSpocalypse
• Positive Sentiment: The company’s approximately $25 billion share-repurchase program, strong profitability and relatively modest forward valuation are providing additional support for the shares. Salesforce also recently reported a significant earnings beat, reinforcing confidence in execution. Has Salesforce Fallen Far Enough To Look Undervalued On Earnings?
• Neutral Sentiment: The Loops acquisition is expected to close in November. Investors will need evidence that the technology produces paid upgrades and sustained revenue growth, rather than only high trial activity.
• Negative Sentiment: Risks remain from elevated short interest, Salesforce’s debt load and uncertainty over whether AI-driven growth can offset pressure on traditional software seat licenses. Integration and enterprise-spending risks could limit the recovery.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Salesforce

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Crumly & Associates Inc. boosted its position in Salesforce by 1.5% during the third quarter. Crumly & Associates Inc. now owns 3,396 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $780,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. HBW Advisory Services LLC grew its stake in Salesforce by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. HBW Advisory Services LLC now owns 13,098 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $2,445,000 after acquiring an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. Prentice Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Salesforce by 1.8% during the 1st quarter. Prentice Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,274 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $611,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. Focused Wealth Management Inc raised its holdings in Salesforce by 5.5% in the 1st quarter. Focused Wealth Management Inc now owns 1,126 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $210,000 after acquiring an additional 59 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Strata Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Salesforce by 4.3% in the 1st quarter. Strata Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,442 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $269,000 after acquiring an additional 59 shares during the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Salesforce Stock Performance

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 stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $227.50 and its 200 day simple moving average is $193.27. The company has a market cap of $192.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.31, a P/E/G ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.26.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 earnings per share 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 analysts’ expectations of $11.33 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 24.90% and a net margin of 21.99%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm 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. As a group, analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.82 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 8th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 17th were paid a dividend of $0.44 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 17th. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. Salesforce’s payout ratio is 16.04%.

About Salesforce

Salesforce, Inc (NYSE: CRM) develops cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) software and enterprise applications. Its platform helps organizations manage sales, customer service, marketing, commerce, analytics, data integration and collaboration through subscription-based services.

The company’s product portfolio includes Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Commerce Cloud, Salesforce Platform, Data Cloud and Tableau. Salesforce also offers MuleSoft integration technology, Slack collaboration software and artificial intelligence capabilities through its Einstein platform.