Even Thursday's sharp selloff in Salesforce stock — up 21% intraday — isn't stopping some Wall Street analysts from sticking to their optimistic view of the customer relationship management software maker. . Salesforce disappointed Wall Street with a steep first-quarter revenue decline, the first since 2006. Salesforce executives attributed the disappointing results in the first quarter to a long deal cycle that affected the company's booking schedule. The company's softer-than-expected second-quarter outlook also fueled sales. Salesforce's CRM 1D mountain shares were under pressure on Thursday after missing first-quarter earnings estimates. But Wall Street's biggest firms, from Goldman Sachs to Morgan Stanley to JPMorgan Chase, aren't abandoning ship. In all three cases, analysts say potential tailwinds from a still-evolving artificial intelligence cycle have yet to dissipate, and that calls for increased investor patience. “We continue to see GenAI as a tailwind for Salesforce, with benefits likely to come in CY25,” Morgan Stanley analyst Keith Weiss noted Thursday in reaction to Salesforce's latest numbers. I wrote Weiss reiterated an overweight rating on Salesforce, albeit with a price target of $320 per share, down from $350. His new forecast implies about 18% upside from the stock's close of $271.62 on Wednesday. AI Call Option”[B]At these levels, GenAI represents a call option,” Weiss warned. The analyst also spoke to Salesforce's longer-than-expected deal cycles during the first quarter, which he says There will be ease over time. Reducing complexity across the organizational layers of the business has operational efficiency benefits,” Weiss said. Goldman Sachs analyst Kash Rangan reiterated a buy rating on Salesforce stock, but lowered his price target to $315 per share from $345. Rangan's approach is similar. With about 16% upside going forward, based on Wednesday's close, “recognizing the need for investors to gain confidence in topline growth and potential re-acceleration, we believe there are macro and micro reasons for optimism.” colors “We note this year's post-election interest rate softening, uncertainty and the growth potential fueled by Gen-AI that Salesforce has named an “underappreciated Gen-AI winner,” he said. He added that the company has room to improve its profit margins regardless of the macroeconomic backdrop. JPMorgan analyst Mark Murphy said sales in Salesforce stock are “overwhelming.” That investors are largely ignoring the company's still-strong free cash flow generation and its unchanged full-year forecast for 2025. The analyst's price target of $300 per share Reiterated an overweight rating on the stock, or about 10% above yesterday.However, Citigroup disagreed in its assessment of what it called Salesforce's quarterly results Carr maintained a neutral rating on the Radke stock and lowered its price target to $260 per share from $323. Radke's new price target, based on Wednesday's price, is ahead of approx showed a 4% decrease. “[W]With growth slowing, lack of risk-adjusted estimates and more active M&A, we await further evidence of growth improvement or data cloud/GenAI momentum/monetization,” cautioned Radke.
