Salesforce stock: buy or sell?
Updated on:
September 20th, 2019
5
Salesforce.com, inc. develops enterprise cloud computing solutions with a focus on customer relationship management. The company offers Sales Cloud to store data, monitor leads and progress, forecast opportunities, gain insights through relationship intelligence, and collaborate around sales on desktop and mobile devices, as well as solutions for partner relationship management.
Should I buy Salesforce stock?
Trading stocks requires experience and discipline, and your buying and selling decisions must come following a methodology. Trading strategies are meant for helping you in the decision process of what stocks to choose and when is the best moment to buy them. There are thousands of trading strategies for you to choose, but at Stocks2.com we prefer those that are simple but successful.Currently, Salesforce.com stock doesn't match any of these trading strategies, so our recommendation is not to buy.
| Buy setup | Elegible |
|---|---|
| New all-time high | No |
| New 52 week high | No |
| Price crossing up 200d MA | No |
| 100d MA crossing up 200d MA | No |
Is Salesforce.com stock a buy?
Everyday, hundreds of stock ratings are posted by financial analysts to indicate a particular stock's attractiveness.
At Stocks2.com, we detected 15 ratings published for CRM stock in the last month. The general sentiment of these ratings is bullish for CRM stock, with 14 positive ratings.| Date | Analyst / Broker | Previous rating | Current rating |
| 2019-8-9 | Jefferies Financial Group | n/a | Buy |
| 2019-8-28 | Credit Suisse Group | n/a | Buy |
| 2019-8-23 | Stifel Nicolaus | n/a | Buy |
| 2019-8-23 | Stifel Nicolaus | n/a | Buy |
| 2019-8-23 | Royal Bank of Canada | Outperform | Positive |
| 2019-8-23 | Nomura | n/a | Buy |
| 2019-8-23 | Morgan Stanley | n/a | Overweight |
| 2019-8-23 | Monness Crespi & Hardt | n/a | Buy |
| 2019-8-23 | Macquarie | n/a | Outperform |
| 2019-8-23 | JPMorgan Chase & Co. | n/a | Buy |
| 2019-8-23 | JMP Securities | n/a | Market Outperform |
| 2019-8-23 | Jefferies Financial Group | n/a | Buy |
| 2019-8-23 | Canaccord Genuity | n/a | Buy |
| 2019-8-23 | Canaccord Genuity | n/a | Buy |
| 2019-8-23 | BMO Capital Markets | n/a | Outperform |
Salesforce stock analysis
Daily outlook
Shares of the cloud CRM company closed today at $155.16 and stepped up a nice 1.02%.
The cloud CRM company ended today at $155.16 and stepped up a nice 1.02%. Since Sep 11th when CRM stock price broke up the SMA200d line, it gained $5.51 (3.68%). CRM is soaring again after a 3.97% correction from its last top on September 12th at $156.80.
Weekly outlook
Salesforce.com shares appreciated 1.43% this week, ending at $155.16. Late July CRM plunged a frightening -9.79% in just one week. By mid August CRM boosted a wonderful 5.07% in just one week.
If you observe the weekly chart, price is in a simple uptrend, tested $147.74 level and now climbing back aiming its last top at $158.42. Far behind is the all-time high Benioff's company hit late April but price is just -7.40% below that top. This week CRM price bounced up over the SMA of 40 weeks that acted as support stopping new slides.
Salesforce stock price history
Salesforce stock went public on June 23rd, 2004 with a price of $3.751. Since then, CRM stock surged a 4,037.60%, with an average of 269.20% per year. If you had invested right after CRM's IPO a $1,000 in Salesforce stock in 2004, it would worth $40,376.00 today.
1: Adjusted price after possible price splits or reverse-splits.
Salesforce stock historical price chart
CRM stock reached all-time highs on April with a price of $167.56.
Salesforce stock price target is $187.90
Predicting the price evolution of a stock or any financial instrument in a reliable and repeatable way is probably impossible. However, banks and other financial institutions analysts, with the help of lots of data and algorithms do their best to predict the stock prices movement. We do not recommend to follow these stock price predictions without a critical thinking from your side, as their accuracy is usually low. We have 14 price predictions for the cloud CRM company stock posted in the last 30 days:| Date | Analyst / Broker | Action | Previous target | Current target | Diff |
| 2019-8-28 | Credit Suisse Group | Set Price Target | n/a | $175.00 | - |
| 2019-8-23 | Stifel Nicolaus | Reiterates | $185.00 | $195.00 | 5.4% |
| 2019-8-23 | Stifel Nicolaus | Raises Target | $185.00 | $195.00 | 5.4% |
| 2019-8-23 | Royal Bank of Canada | Raises Target | $181.00 | $200.00 | 10.5% |
| 2019-8-23 | Nomura | Raises Target | $180.00 | $185.00 | 2.8% |
| 2019-8-23 | Morgan Stanley | Raises Target | $178.00 | $180.00 | 1.1% |
| 2019-8-23 | Monness Crespi & Hardt | Raises Target | $200.00 | $210.00 | 5% |
| 2019-8-23 | Macquarie | Raises Target | $184.00 | $190.00 | 3.3% |
| 2019-8-23 | JPMorgan Chase & Co. | Set Price Target | n/a | $180.00 | - |
| 2019-8-23 | JMP Securities | Raises Target | $178.00 | $191.00 | 7.3% |
| 2019-8-23 | Jefferies Financial Group | Raises Target | $165.00 | $171.00 | 3.6% |
| 2019-8-23 | Canaccord Genuity | Reiterates | $175.00 | $185.00 | 5.7% |
| 2019-8-23 | Canaccord Genuity | Raises Target | $175.00 | $185.00 | 5.7% |
| 2019-8-23 | BMO Capital Markets | Raises Target | $185.00 | $188.00 | 1.6% |
| (in average) | $180.90 | $187.90 | 4.0% |
Financials and fundamental analysis
Earnings date and Earnings per Share
On March, Salesforce.com reported its latest financial data, posting a super good gain for the Earnings per Share (EPS). Experts were expecting $0.23 per share, but Salesforce.com posted $0.37.| Quarter | Reporting date | Estimated EPS | Actual EPS | Surprise |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017-Q2 | - | n/a | -0.01 | n/a |
| 2017-Q3 | - | n/a | 0.02 | n/a |
| 2017-Q4 | 2017-11-21 | 0.37 | 0.39 | 5.4% |
| 2018-Q1 | 2018-02-28 | 0.11 | 0.15 | 36.4% |
| 2018-Q2 | 2018-05-29 | 0.18 | 0.52 | 188.9% |
| 2018-Q3 | 2018-08-29 | 0.12 | 0.35 | 191.7% |
| 2018-Q4 | 2018-11-27 | 0.15 | 0.26 | 73.3% |
| 2019-Q1 | 2019-03-04 | 0.23 | 0.37 | 60.9% |
| 2019-Q2 | - | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| 2019-Q3 | - | n/a | n/a | n/a |
Annual financial results
In 2019, Salesforce.com annual revenues boosted an astounding 26.74% to $13,282.00 million dollars from $10,480.00 marked in 2018. Improving that, its earnings margin (compared to revenues) escalated to 8.36%, that is $1,110.00 million.| Year | Sales | YoY | Income/(margin) | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | $4,070 M | - | $-232.18 M-5.7% | - |
| 2014 | $5,370 M | 31.94% | $-262.69 M-4.9% | 13.14% |
| 2015 | $5,374 M | 0.07% | $-262.69 M-4.9% | 0.00% |
| 2015 | $6,670 M | 24.13% | $-47.43 M-0.7% | -81.94% |
| 2016 | $6,667 M | -0.04% | $-47.43 M-0.7% | -0.01% |
| 2016 | $8,390 M | 25.84% | $180 M2.1% | -478.76% |
| 2017 | $8,392 M | 0.02% | $180 M2.1% | 0.00% |
| 2017 | $10,480 M | 24.88% | $127 M1.2% | -29.03% |
| 2018 | $10,480 M | 0.00% | $127 M1.2% | 0.00% |
| 2019 | $13,282 M | 26.74% | $1,110 M8.4% | 770.74% |
Quarterly financial results
Salesforce.com reported $3,603.00 M in revenues for 2019-Q1, a 6.22% up compared to previous quarter. Reported quarter earnings marked $362.00 million with a profit margin of 10.05%. Profit margin jumped a 6.95% compared to previous quarter when profit margin was 3.10%. When comparing turnover to same quarter last year, Salesforce.com sales marked a dazzling growth and skyrocketed a 28.45%. Looking back to recent quarterly results, Salesforce.com posted 7 negative quarters in a row.| Quarter | Sales1 | QoQ2 | Income1/(margin) | QoQ2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017-Q2 | $2,390 M | - | $-9 M-0.4% | - |
| 2017-Q3 | $2,560 M | 7.11% | $18 M0.7% | -292.62% |
| 2017-Q4 | $2,680 M | 4.68% | $51 M1.9% | 189.71% |
| 2018-Q1 | $2,805 M | 4.67% | $-27 M-0.9% | -151.61% |
| 2018-Q2 | $3,006 M | 7.17% | $344 M11.4% | -1,397.04% |
| 2018-Q3 | $3,281 M | 9.15% | $299 M9.1% | -13.08% |
| 2018-Q4 | $3,392 M | 3.38% | $105 M3.1% | -64.88% |
| 2019-Q1 | $3,603 M | 6.22% | $362 M10.0% | 244.76% |
Salesforce.com ownership
When you are planning to invest in shares of a company, it's worth to have a look its ownership structure.Management staff in all public traded companies that hold equity is required to report every transaction to the SEC. For Salesforce.com, 4.59% of all outstanding shares are owned by its staff.
Bearish positions for CRM stock account 0.00%, no big difference from last month.
The following table compares ownership indicators for other stocks related to Salesforce.com:
| CRM | ADBE | BVSN | INTU | MSFT | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Market cap | $136.1 B | $136.5 B | $7.3 M | $70.0 B | $1,065.3 B |
| Total shares | 877.0 M | 485.4 M | 5.1 M | 260.1 M | 7,640.0 M |
| Float shares | 841.6 M | 483.7 M | 2.3 M | 250.1 M | 7,520.0 M |
| - Institutional holdings (%) | 84.8% | 88.9% | 5.3% | 90.0% | 74.7% |
| - Insider holdings (%) | 4.6% | 0.3% | 60.7% | 4.0% | 1.4% |
| Shares in short selling | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
Salesforce summary
| Friday, September 20th, 2019 | |
|---|---|
| Open | $154.69 |
| Close | $155.16 |
| Day range | $153.62 - $156.87 |
| Previous close | $153.60 |
| Session gain | 1.02% |
| Average true range | $3.07 |
| 50d mov avg | $151.54 |
| 100d mov avg | $153.22 |
| 200d mov avg | $152.79 |
| Daily pattern | lb01a |
| Weekly pattern | lb01a |
Salesforce.com performance
To measure stock performance is always good to benchmark with competitors or related stocks. In the following table, we compare Salesforce.com to Adobe, BroadVision, Intuit, Microsoft, Oracle, and Symantec:| Stock | 3m | 6m | 12m |
|---|---|---|---|
| CRMSalesforce.com | -1.07% | -3.93% | -0.23% |
| ADBEAdobe | -6.04% | 8.31% | 7.81% |
| BVSNBroadVision | 14.29% | -15.79% | -10.00% |
| INTUIntuit | 3.11% | 6.91% | 23.09% |
| MSFTMicrosoft | 2.14% | 19.97% | 23.96% |
| ORCLOracle | -4.38% | 2.14% | 6.33% |
| SAP | -11.05% | 8.43% | -0.41% |
| SYMCSymantec | 15.45% | 5.64% | 16.29% |
Salesforce.com competitors
We picked a few stocks to conform a list of Salesforce.com competitors to watch if you are interested in investing in CRM:Latest Salesforce stock news
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