Salesforce
Shares of enterprise software maker Salesforce Inc. (NYSE: CRM) have struggled over the past 12 months. The stock fell by 47% in 2022 but has recovered more than that loss in the new year. The sudden departure last month of co-CEO Brett Taylor and of Stewart Butterfield, who came to Salesforce in the Slack acquisition, unleashed a literal handful of activist investors demanding changes from now-sole CEO Marc Benioff. Demands for better operating margins are likely to lead to more layoffs. The outlook for the new fiscal year could be the deciding factor in how investors react to the quarterly report.
Of 53 analysts covering the stock, 39 have a Buy or Strong Buy rating. Another 13 rate it at Hold. At a share price of around $163.00, the upside potential based on a median price target of $200.00 is 22.7%. At the high price target of $384.30, the upside potential is 135.8%.
The consensus revenue estimate for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023 is $7.99 billion, up 2.0% sequentially and 9.0% higher year over year. Adjusted EPS are forecast at $1.36, down 2.6% sequentially but up nearly 62% year over year. For the full fiscal year that ended in January, current estimates call for EPS of $4.93, up 3.2%, on sales of $31.05 billion, up about 17.2%.
Salesforce stock trades at 33.1 times expected 2023 EPS, 27.8 times estimated 2024 earnings of $5.87 and 23.2 times estimated 2025 earnings of $7.04 per share. The stock’s 52-week range is $126.34 to $222.16. The company does not pay a dividend. Total shareholder return for the past year was negative 21.6%.
Snowflake
Over the past 12 months, cloud-based data platform provider Snowflake Inc. (NYSE: SNOW) has seen its share price plummet by 42.6%. It just so happens that high was posted exactly one year ago.
Last week, the company announced a new telecom data cloud that “unites” Snowflake’s platform with telecom industry solutions and data sets that customer AT&T is using to “[drive] to a single source of truth for their data across the organization where business partners can seamlessly access AT&T’s data to improve their customer experience and maximize operational efficiencies.” In other words, AT&T knows a lot about its customers, and now, with Snowflake’s help, the telecom giant is going to try to cash in on the data.
Of 43 brokerages covering the stock, 13 rate it at Hold and 28 have Buy or Strong Buy ratings. At a price of around $155.00 a share, the upside potential based on a median price target of $180.00 is 16.1%. At the high price target of $500.00, the upside potential is 222.6%.
Fiscal fourth-quarter revenue is forecast at $575.18 million, up 3.3% sequentially and almost 50% higher year over year. Snowflake is expected to post adjusted EPS of $0.05 in the quarter, down 53.6% sequentially and by 58.3% year over year. For the full 2023 fiscal year that ended in January, Snowflake is expected to post adjusted EPS of $0.22, up from the year-ago EPS of $0.01, on sales of $2.05 billion, up 68.1%.
Snowflake stock trades at 289.8 times estimated 2024 earnings of $0.53 and 162.2 times estimated 2025 earnings of $0.95 per share. The stock’s 52-week range is $110.27 to $274.58. The company does not pay a dividend, and the total shareholder return for the past year was negative 42.6%.
Originally published at 24/7 Wall St.
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