We recently published a list of Jim Cramer is Talking About These 10 Stocks Amid Global Selloff. Since Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) ranks 4th on the list, it deserves a deeper look.
Jim Cramer in his latest program on CNBC talked about the brutal market selloff of Monday and said days like these could make you “cry yourself to sleep.” Cramer said that this “nasty” selloff was expected.
“It’s exactly what you’d expect at this point in the rate cycle, the point where the Fed is about to start cutting rates to bolster the economy. But the economy is going down,” Cramer said.
Cramer said that the Monday selloff was “vicious enough” to make any investor think why they should stay in the market, but that’s exactly “what you have to do.” He thinks the latest decline is a buying opportunity for long-term investors.
Jim Cramer said that the selloff started because money managers who were borrowing money from Japan to invest in US stocks were caught with their “pants down” when Japan increased interest rates. As a result, these funds were forced to sell their stocks. He thinks it’s not possible to call a bottom on this decline yet “until we know these sellers are done unwinding their trades.”
Cramer said that another key reason why investors were selling on Monday was the notion that the Fed is late on cutting rates. But Cramer said a 25 bps rate cut wouldn’t have mattered a lot and if Fed Chair Jerome Powell sees there is a need for an urgent rate cut, he’d do it.
“He’s got horse sense,” Cramer said.
Jim Cramer said there are no “safe havens” in tech and while he reiterated his bullish view on some notable tech stocks, he advised investors to be ready for “pain” in the near term if they want to invest in technology.
“If you can’t take the pain, then get the heck out of it.”
For this article we watched several latest programs of Jim Cramer and picked 10 important stocks he’s talking about. With each stock we have mentioned the number of hedge fund investors. 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 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).
Copyright: drserg / 123RF Stock Photo
4. Salesforce Inc (NYSE:CRM)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 154
Jim Cramer in his latest program seemed a bit indecisive about Salesforce Inc (NYSE:CRM), saying the overall situation is “very difficult”. Cramer said that he does not like enterprise software but he can recommend Salesforce Inc (NYSE:CRM) at a certain level.
“At $240 is where I’d probably say it’s ok to buy again.”
According to Yahoo Finance data, Salesforce Inc (NYSE:CRM) is expected to see earnings growth of about 16% on a per-annum basis over the next five years. Data also shows the company is expected to deliver double-digit YoY EPS growth in the next ten out of eleven quarters.
While Salesforce Inc (NYSE:CRM) is primarily a customer relationship software company, with notable tools and platforms like Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Tableau, MuleSoft, and Slack, its most promising platform is Data Cloud when it comes to AI and software. The platform has 90% year-over-year growth and clocking in $400 million in FY2024. What does this platform do? It helps organizations process data from various departments and third-party cloud solutions. Powered by an AI-driven data engine, it analyzes metadata in real-time to provide valuable insights, supporting sales, marketing, and customer service workflows.
As of the end of Q1 Salesforce Inc (NYSE:CRM) had $17.7 billion in cash and low financial leverage.
Mizuho Securities analyst Gregg Moskowitz thinks the company is still “well situated” to help customers in digital transformation. However, the analyst thinks Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) would do so by prioritizing profitable growth. The analyst reiterated his Buy rating on the stock but cut his price target to $300 from $345.
Morgan Stanley analyst Keith Weiss, who has an Overweight rating and a $320 price target on Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM), said that Salesforce’s PEG ratio of 1.2 shows the market is not pricing in operational discipline and earnings growth sustainability.
“We continue to view GenAI as a tailwind for Salesforce, with benefits likely coming in CY25, but at these levels, GenAI represents a call option.”
Polen Focus Growth Strategy stated the following regarding Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) declined nearly 20% due to a slowdown in revenue and bookings growth, part of a wider trend we’ve observed across enterprise software as companies defer spending on large projects given the uncertain macroeconomic environment. As mentioned, there has been an emerging narrative about prioritized spending on AI, cloud, and security over enterprise software spending that could eventually impair seat-based software over the longer term. Though there may be some near-term shifts in dollars toward GenAI, we believe the market for mission-critical enterprise software will remain robust well into the future. We will monitor the position closely, but we continue to believe that Salesforce is well-placed with its mission-critical software and high customer retention rates to weather these headwinds, lean on pricing power, and effectively monetize generative AI in its product suite.”
Overall, Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) ranks 4th on Insider Monkey’s list titled Jim Cramer is Talking About These 10 Stocks Amid Global Selloff. While we acknowledge the potential of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM), our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. 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: Analyst Sees a New $25 Billion “Opportunity” for NVIDIA and Jim Cramer is Recommending These Stocks.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
