Is Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) the Most Promising Stock According to Analysts?

We recently published a list of the 11 Most Promising Stocks According to Analysts. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) stands against other promising stocks.

On April 23, Stephen Parker, JPMorgan Private Bank co-head of global investment strategy, joined ‘Squawk Box’ on CNBC to express that investors should have a normal level of risk in their portfolios right now. Parker explained that while he is fully in support of remaining invested in the market, he does recommend clients to stay focused on sectors that may be more resilient in a downturn to help protect against losses while staying long. His baseline guidance is for clients to maintain a normal level of risk in their portfolios. Those holding too much cash should get invested, and those overexposed to US markets and the dollar should consider adding non-US exposure. He advised that this is a period where investors must be comfortable with discomfort, as policy uncertainty broadens the range of possible outcomes.

Parker acknowledged that while downside risks are top of mind for many investors, there is also upside potential, especially if there are positive policy surprises, such as clarity on tariffs, which could drive markets back to their highs sooner than expected. His outlook for the S&P 500 index is a wide range, with the high end being flat for the year and a possible range of 5,700-6,200. This reflects heightened policy uncertainty and difficulty in pinpointing a single target. Parker pointed out that even if it takes two years for markets to return to all-time highs, an 8% annual return would still be compelling for equities.  Reflecting on the start of the year, he noted that market multiples were considered rich following 2 consecutive years of 20%+ gains. There was optimism around deregulation and changes to corporate taxes, but few expected the S&P 500 to remain flat for 2 years from a level of 6,200. Parker further explained that even without pro-business policy changes, the market may have faced challenges after such strong recent gains. The pullback in high-performing segments of the US market has brought valuations closer to what he considers normal levels, which also sets the stage for potential upside.

Our Methodology

We sifted through the Finviz stock screener to compile a list of the top stocks that had high analysts’ upside potential (at least 35%). The stocks are ranked in ascending order of their upside potential. We have also added the hedge fund sentiment for each stock, as of Q4 2024, which was sourced from Insider Monkey’s database.

Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 162

Average Upside Potential as of April 23: 50.73%

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) offers CRM technology that connects companies and customers. One of its products includes Agentforce, which is an agentic layer of the Salesforce platform. It also offers Slack, which is a workplace communication & productivity platform, and Tableau, which is an end-to-end analytics solution for enterprise use cases and intelligent analytics.

On April 23, Piper Sandler lowered the price target on the stock to $315 from $400 while maintaining an Overweight rating. Tariff, policy, and AI adoption hurdles have led the firm to cut estimates and price targets across the cloud applications. However, Salesforce’s unified platform includes the Customer 360 platform, Data Cloud, and Agentforce AI product line. These together integrate CRM applications, data management, and AI-powered automation and drive most of the company’s growth.

In only 90 days, Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) acquired 3,000 paying customers for Agentforce. Data Cloud is the foundation for Agentforce and provides the necessary data for AI-powered automation. It surpassed 50 trillion records and doubled year-over-year. Fueled by this platform, Salesforce’s FQ4 2025 revenue rose by 8% year-over-year. Data Cloud and AI ARR grew by 120%.

Parnassus Growth Equity Fund stated the following regarding Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:

“Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) reported third-quarter results that exceeded analysts’ expectations, as the integration of AI technology across the customer relationship management software company’s product offerings has driven robust growth in new deals.”

Overall, CRM ranks 3rd on our list of the most promising stocks according to analysts. While we acknowledge the growth potential of CRM, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold great promise for delivering high returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than CRM but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires.

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.