Salesforce stock: buy or sell?
Updated on:
May 20th, 2019
4
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?
Even if you are a experienced or a novel trader, best trading results come from using an investing strategy that never leaves to random or subjective opinions when is the best moment to buy or sell stocks. Following a trading plan helps to make decisions easier, quicker and with less hesitations. At Stocks2.com, we like to use very simple but trusted and powerful trend following trading strategies. Simple things usually work the best.None of our preferred buy setups matches with Salesforce.com stock situation right now, hence this is not a suitable entry point.
| 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?
Financial institutions and banks publish stock ratings everyday.
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 12 positive ratings.| Date | Analyst / Broker | Previous rating | Current rating |
| 2019-4-17 | JPMorgan Chase & Co. | n/a | Buy |
| 2019-3-6 | JMP Securities | n/a | Buy |
| 2019-3-6 | Citigroup | Buy | Buy |
| 2019-3-6 | Canaccord Genuity | n/a | Buy |
| 2019-3-5 | Wells Fargo & Co | n/a | Outperform |
| 2019-3-5 | Wedbush | Outperform | Outperform |
| 2019-3-5 | SunTrust Banks | n/a | Buy |
| 2019-3-5 | Societe Generale | n/a | Buy |
| 2019-3-5 | Sanford C. Bernstein | n/a | Neutral |
| 2019-3-5 | Robert W. Baird | Outperform | Outperform |
| 2019-3-5 | Raymond James | Strong-Buy | Strong-Buy |
| 2019-3-5 | Raymond James | Strong-Buy | Strong-Buy |
| 2019-3-5 | Nomura | n/a | Buy |
| 2019-3-5 | Macquarie | Outperform | Outperform |
| 2019-3-5 | JPMorgan Chase & Co. | n/a | Buy |
Salesforce stock analysis
Daily outlook
Salesforce.com grew a tiny 0.89% and closed at $155.95.
The cloud CRM company closed today at $155.95 and grew a tiny 0.89%. Since SMA100d and SMA200d crossed up on March, CRM price slid a -3.06%. On April 29th, CRM hit a new all time high, pushing higher than on March tops. Check different trading setups that use ATHs as triggers. Since last January when CRM stock price broke up the SMA200d line, it gained $25.55 (19.59%).
Weekly outlook
Benioff's company closed this week at $155.95 and gained a slightly fine 0.89%. Late April CRM rocketed an astounding 6.01% in just one week.
Not so far away is the last price record Benioff's company marked late April. Since SMA20w and SMA40w crossed up by mid March, CRM price slid a -3.44%. Early January 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 4,058.70%, with a yearly average of 289.90%. If you had invested $1,000 in Salesforce stock in 2004, it would worth $40,587.00 today.
1: Adjusted price after possible price splits or reverse-splits.
Salesforce stock historical price chart
CRM stock reached all-time highs on April/29 with a price of $167.56.
Salesforce stock price target is $183.40
Nobody can reliably foresee how stock prices may evolve in the future. However, financial institutions invest time and resources to provide the most accurated estimations to help investors to make their decisions. You should not follow the analysts' CRM stock price predictions in the hope that they will be met as they may be wrong and not met. For the last month we found 15 price forecasts for CRM stock:| Date | Analyst / Broker | Action | Previous target | Current target | Diff |
| 2019-4-17 | JPMorgan Chase & Co. | Set Price Target | n/a | $180.00 | - |
| 2019-3-6 | JMP Securities | Reiterates | n/a | $178.00 | - |
| 2019-3-6 | Citigroup | Raises Target | $183.00 | $185.00 | 1.1% |
| 2019-3-6 | Canaccord Genuity | Raises Target | $165.00 | $175.00 | 6.1% |
| 2019-3-5 | Wells Fargo & Co | Reiterates | $175.00 | $185.00 | 5.7% |
| 2019-3-5 | Wedbush | Reiterates | $174.00 | $192.00 | 10.3% |
| 2019-3-5 | SunTrust Banks | Raises Target | n/a | $183.00 | - |
| 2019-3-5 | Societe Generale | Set Price Target | n/a | $186.00 | - |
| 2019-3-5 | Sanford C. Bernstein | Set Price Target | n/a | $160.00 | - |
| 2019-3-5 | Robert W. Baird | Raises Target | $165.00 | $175.00 | 6.1% |
| 2019-3-5 | Raymond James | Reiterates | $165.00 | $200.00 | 21.2% |
| 2019-3-5 | Raymond James | Raises Target | $165.00 | $200.00 | 21.2% |
| 2019-3-5 | Nomura | Set Price Target | n/a | $184.00 | - |
| 2019-3-5 | Macquarie | Raises Target | $174.00 | $188.00 | 8% |
| 2019-3-5 | JPMorgan Chase & Co. | Set Price Target | n/a | $180.00 | - |
| (in average) | $170.80 | $183.40 | 7.0% |
Financials and fundamental analysis
Earnings date and Earnings per Share
The cloud CRM company presented extraordinary results for 2019-Q1 on March. Salesforce.com boosted Earnings per Share (EPS) by 60.90%, beating experts of $0.23. 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 turnover boosted an outstanding 26.74% to $13,282.00 million dollars from $10,480.00 marked in 2018. When comparing 2019 vs 2018, improving that, profit margin (that is, the net income divided by revenues) soared a 7.14% to 8.36%.| 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 sales for 2019-Q1, a 6.22% up compared to previous quarter. Reported quarter income 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 sales to same quarter last year, Salesforce.com sales marked an amazing increase and skyrocketed a 28.45%. Looking back to recent quarterly results, Salesforce.com posted 7 positive 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 a stock, it's always worth to review its ownership structure.Salesforce.com shares owned by insiders (that is, founders, CEO, CTO, main executives or other management staff) currently counts a 4.59% of all shares.
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 | $120.8 B | $136.6 B | $6.0 M | $63.1 B | $966.8 B |
| Total shares | 774.8 M | 488.0 M | 5.1 M | 259.1 M | 7,660.0 M |
| Float shares | 735.8 M | 486.4 M | 2.3 M | 249.1 M | 7,560.0 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
| Monday, May 20th, 2019 | |
|---|---|
| Open | $152.47 |
| Close | $155.95 |
| Day range | $151.70 - $156.06 |
| Previous close | $154.57 |
| Session gain | 0.89% |
| Average true range | $5.01 |
| 50d mov avg | $159.76 |
| 100d mov avg | $155.76 |
| 200d mov avg | $149.43 |
| Daily pattern | lt01a |
| Weekly pattern | |
Salesforce.com performance
Performance as an absolute value is never valid if it's not benchmarked against competitors or related stocks in the industry. For Salesforce.com, the benchmark is made against Adobe, BroadVision, Intuit, Microsoft, Oracle, and Symantec.| Stock | 3m | 6m | 12m |
|---|---|---|---|
| CRMSalesforce.com | -3.32% | 27.80% | 21.87% |
| ADBEAdobe | 7.86% | 17.15% | 17.54% |
| BVSNBroadVision | -16.20% | -25.63% | -44.65% |
| INTUIntuit | -2.71% | 24.18% | 24.66% |
| MSFTMicrosoft | 14.16% | 23.44% | 30.41% |
| ORCLOracle | 2.68% | 11.10% | 16.03% |
| SAP | 17.17% | 25.67% | 11.30% |
| SYMCSymantec | -14.30% | -13.78% | -9.37% |
Salesforce.com competitors
One check before trading any stock is to review a list of its competitors, in this case for Salesforce.com. We chose 7 companies as Salesforce.com competitors as they are in the same industry or have similar market objectives.Latest Salesforce stock news
- Seeking AlphaSalesforce.com: Management Expects Strong Growth, But Its Stock Is ExpensiveMay 17, 2019
- InvestorPlace3 Big Stock Charts for Wednesday: Salesforce.com, DISH Network and F5 NetworksMay 8, 2019
- InvestorPlaceSalesforce.com Is Bigger Than BenioffApril 17, 2019
- Seeking AlphaSalesforce.com Is In The MoneyMarch 23, 2019
- Seeking AlphaSalesforce.com: Q1 Guidance A Bit Light But Fiscal Year Remains Very StrongMarch 9, 2019