Salesforce’s latest quarterly results weren’t enough to sway some skeptics on the stock. The company’s fiscal first-quarter earnings and revenue beat consensus estimates. Not only that, Salesforce raised its earnings and revenue outlook for the full year. It also reiterated its 9% growth forecast in subscription and support revenue. Still, the stock was little changed in the premarket following the release. Some analysts pointed to an uncertain outlook for the tech giant. A few analysts trimmed their targets. RBC went as far as to downgrade Salesforce shares. To be sure, some on the Street remained bullish on the stock after the company posted earnings. Here’s the reaction from some of the Street’s biggest shops: RBC downgrades Salesforce to sector perform from outperform, cuts target to $275 from $420 The firm’s new target points to a slight decline from Wednesday’s close. “Our downgrade is primarily driven by the formally announced acquisition of Informatica for $8B … as well as longer-term concerns. … We like Salesforce’s leadership position in core CRM and don’t see any meaningful competitors that threaten to take meaningful share in the near-term, especially in the enterprise. However, we worry that, given these issues, Salesforce could see long-term risk of disruption or disintermediation from AI-natives.” Goldman Sachs reiterates buy rating and raises price target to $385 from $340 The firm’s updated target implies more than 39% upside from Wednesday’s close. “While we acknowledge concerns around the tone change after two years of carefully orchestrated margin expansion and expense control, we view the scaling of distribution capacity (AEs +14%, expecting +22% by year-end) in pursuit of the Data / AI opportunity to be strategically sound. Specifically, we believe the company will remain focused on productivity, with disciplined resource allocation across strategic growth vectors. … We view the evolved sales compensation strategy—now tied to both net new and renewal performance—as a key lever to expanding the renewal base (~92%) which can be accretive to long-term growth and profitability outlook. Together, these dynamics underpin our conviction in Salesforce’s F2H26 growth curve.” Morgan Stanley keeps overweight rating, raises price target to $404 from $393 The bank’s new target points to 46% upside. “Bottom line, despite an uneven spending environment and investor concerns on the signaling of M & A, Q1 proved a solid quarter with 11% cRPO growth in CC and building momentum behind Data Cloud and Agentforce. With shares at 17X CY26 FCF, pricing in little for AI success, we see a positive risk/reward in the stock.” Bank of America maintains buy rating and $350 price target The bank’s target calls for nearly 27% upside from here. “Q1 results, while not game changing, point to a stable demand environment, with continued strength in the Agentforce new product cycle. Q1 cRPO growth of 11% cc nicely exceeded our 10.4%, driven by strength in Data Cloud and Agentforce. An unchanged outlook for FY26 subscription growth of 9% cc is a welcome relief, given concerns that weaker channel tone could prompt a guide down. Sales of AI offerings, such as Agentforce and Data Cloud, continued to outperform.” Citi keeps neutral rating and $320 price target Its target implies about 16% upside ahead. “At first blush, there looks to be something for everyone in the Q1 print, and with broader questions around organic growth + Agentforce maturity post the announcement of the INFA acquisition, we’d expect shares to be somewhat range bound.” Wells Fargo keeps its equal weight rating and increases price target to $275 from $255 Its new target sees about 0.4% downside. “Against a lowered bar given mixed results across enterprise & INFA deal timing, 1Q results were fine & FY26 cc guide across-the-board was unchanged. Still expect shares to trade sideways in uneven macro & INFA pending until FY27.” Bernstein reiterates its underperform rating and ups its price target to $255 from $243 Its updated target calls for more than 7% downside. “In some ways we could say this was a boring quarter (other than the acquisition), but frankly boring is good. With concerns about macro and the potential of a recession it is nice yet again to see a company deliver an in-line quarter with no visible macro effect. We have been concerned that Salesforce was a mature business in a mature market and that expectations were running too high in general and especially as it relates to Agentforce. After the Q1 results, the stock was basically flat in the aftermarket as expectations are likely to come down that growth is not going to accelerate and the company is increasing headcount investments and M & A.”
