What happened
Many stocks rose by healthy percentages on Tuesday. Customer relationship management (CRM) software giant Salesforce.com (CRM -0.39%), however, was not one of them. Investors were cool on the stock following an analyst's price target cut, and it closed the day marginally lower against the 2% rise of the S&P 500 index.
So what
The cutting party was Swiss banking conglomerate UBS, in the person of analyst Karl Keirstead. He now feels that Salesforce stock is fairly priced at $185 per share, well down from his previous target of $225.
Image source: Getty Images.
Keirstead is maintaining his neutral rating on the shares, though. He wrote in a new research note that a decline in the broader economy is likely to negatively impact client demand. This is balanced, in his view, by the company's almost-tempting low share price.
Salesforce has generally been a downer of a stock this year. It has been a victim of the migration away from growth stocks as fears of the effects of rising interest rates and slowing economic growth continue to haunt investors.
Now what
Many of those folks want to see signs that the Salesforces of the world are resilient and have the potential to overcome such challenges. But the company has been fairly quiet lately, offering investors little news of major consequence -- certainly nothing that might indicate the company is poised for outperformance during the possibly leaner times to come.
Nothing, that is, if you don't consider its fourth-quarter and full-year fiscal 2022 earnings. Those results, published in early March, showed that Salesforce is still a force to be reckoned with in the CRM world. Not for the first time, the company delivered robust growth, beat analysts' estimates on both the top and bottom lines, and raised its revenue guidance.
I think Salesforce still has plenty of potential, so it should be near the top of any investor's list of beaten-down bargains. I don't see it staying this cheap forever.
