Shares of Salesforce Inc (CRM) experienced an initial surge in early trading on Thursday, fueled by an upbeat second-quarter financial report. The results prompted a mixed bag of reactions from analysts, with some expressing optimism while others raised concerns regarding macro uncertainty and the company’s future trajectory.
Goldman Sachs analyst Kash Rangan maintained a Buy rating and raised the price target from $315 to $325, citing the report as a “relief for investors.” Rangan attributed this sentiment to the confirmation of a “stabilizing demand environment” and the reaffirmation of full-year revenue guidance, which alleviates concerns about the latter half of the year. He highlighted the impressive 130% growth in paid Data Cloud customers, the signing of 1,500 AI deals, and the more than doubling of bookings for AI products sequentially. Rangan asserted, “We continue to see Salesforce as an under-appreciated AI winner as its differentiated data and early success in creating/deploying Gen-AI agents can solidify Salesforce’s first mover advantage in enterprise-grade Gen-AI applications.”
Stifel analyst Parker Lane echoed the positive sentiment, reiterating a Buy rating and raising the price target from $300 to $320. Lane noted that Salesforce delivered stronger bookings and cRPO (current remaining performance obligation) figures compared to the previous quarter, attributing this improvement to “improved sales execution and early renewal favorability.” He emphasized the significance of Agentforce, Einstein-powered genAI agents across Salesforce’s product portfolio, which was “front-and-center on the call.” Lane further stated that the company continued to witness robust trends in Data Cloud. “We continue to believe Salesforce is well-positioned to be a leader in delivering genAI solutions to enterprises, and are pleased with the company’s progress from a profitability standpoint,” he added.
DA Davidson analyst Gil Luria maintained a Neutral rating but raised the price target from $230 to $250. Luria highlighted Salesforce’s total revenues of $9.33 billion, surpassing consensus estimates of $9.23 billion, which he attributed to “resilient core product demand, strong data cloud growth, and license revenue outperformance.” Luria praised the company’s ability to “drive profitable growth at scale.” He noted that strong multi-cloud adoption trends accounted for 80% of new business in the quarter, coupled with industry cloud momentum. Management guided to fiscal 2025 total revenue between $37.7 billion and $38.0 billion, including a $100 million FX headwind and implying 8%-9% Y/Y growth.
BMO Capital Markets analyst Keith Bachman maintained an Outperform rating and raised the price target from $265 to $305. Bachman highlighted Salesforce’s cRPO growth in constant currency terms, which reached 11% year-on-year, exceeding his initial expectations. He further noted that management guided to approximately 8.5% year-on-year cRPO growth for the October quarter. Bachman expressed some reservations, stating, “In 2HFY25, we note CRM faces difficult compares in the license business in both MuleSoft and Tableau.” He acknowledged that the Integration & Analytics business might continue to decline but predicted that Sales Cloud and Service Cloud “can remain solid, at high single-digits, in part helped by industry cloud growth.”
Piper Sandler analyst Brent Bracelin reiterated a Neutral rating and raised the price target from $250 to $268. Bracelin characterized Salesforce’s results as “better-than-feared,” with management commentary reaffirming that the buying environment could remain challenging. He highlighted the 9% ex-FX growth, a rebound in cRPO growth to 11%, and additional margin expansion to 33.7%. However, he expressed concern regarding the second-half outlook, noting that the implied 8% growth reflects further moderation impacted by two years of measured spending. Bracelin highlighted “several industry constraints flagged in the largest Americas region (66% of sales) where growth slowed to 7.5% y/y from 10.7% last quarter.” He further expressed apprehension about macro uncertainty, the departure of Salesforce’s CFO at year-end, and the “pending multi-year model transition from applications to agents.”
Truist Securities analyst Terry Tillman reaffirmed a Buy rating and a price target of $300. Tillman praised Salesforce’s beat on revenues, profits, and cRPO growth, achieved “despite persistent tough macro.” He attributed this performance to “Salesforce executed well on its strategic growth pillars and saw momentum in multi-cloud deals, international expansion, Industry Solutions performance, and sustained traction with Data Cloud and AI solutions.” Tillman highlighted Agentforce as an “important new growth catalyst.”
Roth Capital Partners analyst Richard Baldry maintained a Buy rating and a price target of $335. Baldry acknowledged that Salesforce’s growth strengthened in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2024 but reverted to weakness in the first quarter of fiscal 2025. While the second quarter of fiscal 2025 showed modest upside, Baldry cautioned that “the guide for a flat sequential 3QF25 again reverts to weakness.” He added, “With 3QF25 guided soft, but F25 maintained, 4QF25 results signal an acceleration that appears risky.” Despite these challenges, Baldry remained optimistic, believing that AI-based technologies are poised to “spark a growth rebound over the intermediate-term.”
RBC Capital Markets analyst Rishi Jaluria reiterated an Outperform rating and a price target of $300. Jaluria described the quarter as “decent overall” and acknowledged the announced departure of CFO Amy Weaver. While he highlighted the “solid upside” in the second-quarter results, particularly the acceleration of cRPO growth to 11%, Jaluria noted that the company maintained its full-year guidance for total and subscription revenue growth. He expressed reservations about the third-quarter cRPO, which implies a deceleration of around 200 bps, and the full-year operating margin guidance, showing an expansion of only 30 bps.
By the time of publication on Thursday, shares of Salesforce had slipped by 0.09% to $258.68.
