BMO Capital analyst Keith Bachman raised his price target on Salesforce (CRM) to $147 after its "solid" Q1 results across all metrics as well as "upside tension" in its guidance relative to estimates. The analyst says that while he was not supportive of the MuleSoft (MULE) deal, it will help Salesforce sustain its top-line growth over 2019, which should also boost the multiple. Excluding MuleSoft revenues and FX impact, Bachman sees Salesforce organic revenue growth of just over 20%. Longer term, the analyst keeps his Outperform rating on Salesforce, stating that its scale offers brand, sales, and cost advantages relative to other SaaS vendors, while the company also benefits from its integrated cloud platform set.

Morgan Stanley notes that Salesforce (CRM) management has advised investors that strategic M&A would be coming back into the company's toolkit at some point and recent press speculation about the company being in advanced talks to buy Informatica (INFA) suggests the company "may be ready to break the ice." While any significant M&A brings execution risks and "increased angst from investors still harboring memories of prior expensive deals," the analyst says a rumored transaction with Informatica, if it were to be confirmed and the deal were to be struck around a $12B enterprise value, looks to meet Salesforce's "criteria for responsible M&A." The firm, which sees potential for a complementary expansion that further buttresses the capabilities of Mulesoft and Data Cloud, has an Overweight rating and $350 price target on Salesforce shares.