Monness Crespi & Hardt Issues Positive Forecast for Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Stock Price

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) had its target price increased by equities researchers at Monness Crespi & Hardt from $200.00 to $222.00 in a note issued to investors on Thursday. The brokerage currently has a “buy” rating on the CRM provider’s stock. Monness Crespi & Hardt’s target price indicates a potential upside of 14.91% from the company’s current price.

CRM has been the subject of several other reports. Evercore reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Tuesday, July 14th. Weiss Ratings cut Salesforce from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Wedbush initiated coverage on Salesforce in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. They set an “outperform” rating for the company. Daiwa Securities Group decreased their price target on Salesforce from $295.00 to $280.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered Salesforce from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, August 1st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have issued a Buy rating, sixteen have given a Hold rating and four have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Salesforce currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $250.85.

Salesforce Stock Down 2.2%

CRM stock opened at $193.20 on Thursday. 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 fifty-two week low of $146.32 and a fifty-two week high of $269.11. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $170.96 and its 200 day simple moving average is $182.38. The stock has a market cap of $158.23 billion, a PE ratio of 22.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.16.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.05 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business 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 10.27 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Salesforce

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC bought a new stake in Salesforce during the fourth quarter worth approximately $25,000. Key Capital Management INC bought a new position in shares of Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Gilpin Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Persistent Asset Partners Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 2nd quarter valued at $27,000. Finally, Costello Asset Management INC boosted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 410.3% during the 1st quarter. Costello Asset Management INC now owns 148 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 119 shares in the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Key Stories Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Analyst price-target increases: UBS raised its target to $210 from $185, while Wells Fargo lifted its target to $205 from $200. Both firms retained neutral or equal-weight ratings, signaling potential upside but limited conviction. Analyst price-target updates
• Positive Sentiment: Short interest declined sharply: Salesforce short interest fell 36.7% in the second half of July to 29.4 million shares, or 3.7% of shares outstanding. The reduction may ease bearish pressure and suggests some short sellers have covered positions.
• Positive Sentiment: AI ecosystem expansion: Salesforce’s Agentforce platform is being incorporated into new enterprise solutions, including Navatar’s governed AI framework for private equity and M&A. Strativera also launched a Salesforce consulting practice on AppExchange, supporting adoption of Salesforce’s platform.
• Neutral Sentiment: AI opportunity remains a key focus: Articles highlight Salesforce’s position as enterprise AI software spending grows, while investors await inflation data and assess whether macroeconomic conditions will affect technology budgets. Enterprise AI software outlook
• Negative Sentiment: UBS cautioned on revenue growth: The bank said Salesforce may temper expectations for an acceleration in second-half revenue because customer trends appear mixed. This directly challenges the growth reacceleration narrative supporting the stock. UBS Salesforce growth outlook
• Negative Sentiment: Competitive and customer-loss concerns: Curative reportedly dropped an approximately $600,000 annual Salesforce contract after developing AI-built software internally, while a major healthcare customer reportedly moved to an in-house AI CRM. These reports reinforce concerns that AI could reduce demand for traditional CRM subscriptions.
• Negative Sentiment: Government AI positioning faces scrutiny: Leadership changes and questions surrounding sensitive government workloads may create uncertainty about Salesforce’s ability to win or retain high-value public-sector AI contracts.

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.