Veeva Systems (VEEV) Stock Slides After Strong Q3 Earnings and Guidance Raise – What’s Really Spooking Investors on 21 November 2025

Veeva Systems Inc. (NYSE: VEEV) just delivered another quarter of double‑digit growth and raised its full‑year outlook — yet the stock is tumbling on Friday, 21 November 2025, as Wall Street zeroes in on customer churn in its flagship CRM business and a flurry of mixed analyst reactions. ^[1]

Below is a full breakdown of today’s key developments, why VEEV is under pressure despite impressive fundamentals, and what investors will be watching next.

Key takeaways for 21 November 2025

Q3 FY26 beat: Revenue grew 16% year over year to $811.2 million, with non‑GAAP EPS of $2.04, both ahead of consensus. ^[2]
Guidance raised again: Management lifted full‑year fiscal 2026 guidance to about $3.17 billion in revenue and $7.93 in non‑GAAP EPS, the third consecutive raise. ^[3]
Stock down ~9% today: Despite the beat, VEEV shares are trading around $245–246, down roughly 9% on the day after pre‑market losses of 6–7%. ^[4]
CRM client losses in focus: Veeva now expects to retain 14 of the top 20 pharma customers on its new Vault CRM, with Salesforce winning the remaining six — a key overhang for the stock. ^[5]
Busy analyst day: Raymond James, BMO, Needham and Canaccord all issued fresh notes today, with price targets spanning $280 to $355 and ratings ranging from Hold to Buy. ^[6]

Q3 FY26: Another strong quarter for Veeva Systems

Veeva’s fiscal third quarter (ended 31 October 2025) delivered the kind of numbers growth investors usually cheer: ^[7]

Total revenue: $811.2 million (up 16% from $699.2 million a year ago)
Subscription services revenue: $682.5 million (up 17% year over year)
GAAP operating income: $240.9 million (up 33%)
Non‑GAAP operating income: $364.9 million (up 20%)
GAAP net income: $236.2 million (up 27%)
GAAP EPS: $1.40 vs. $1.13 a year ago
Non‑GAAP EPS: $2.04 vs. $1.75 a year ago

The company also highlighted a 75%+ gross margin profile and robust cash generation. Veeva ended the quarter with $1.66 billion in cash and cash equivalents and $4.97 billion in short‑term investments, with operating cash flow of about $1.3 billion for the first nine months of fiscal 2026 — a strong balance sheet for a software business still growing in the mid‑teens. ^[8]

Guidance: Higher for Q4 and full year

Veeva raised its outlook yet again: ^[9]

Q4 FY26 guidance
- Revenue: $807–$810 million
- Non‑GAAP EPS: ~$1.92
Full‑year FY26 guidance
- Revenue: $3.166–$3.169 billion
- Non‑GAAP operating income: ~$1.417 billion
- Non‑GAAP EPS: ~$7.93

Management reiterated its long‑term ambition to reach a $6 billion revenue run rate by 2030, underscoring confidence in the company’s pipeline and long‑term demand from life sciences customers. ^[10]

Market reaction on 21 November 2025: “Good quarter, bad tape”

Despite the strong headline results and higher guidance, VEEV stock is firmly in the red today.

As of early afternoon on Friday:

US listing (NYSE: VEEV): around $245.54, down roughly 9% on the session.
Pre‑market: shares were already down about 6–7% to the low $250s after the earnings release. ^[11]
European trading: Veeva’s shares traded near €217 on Tradegate, down about 7.5% intraday. ^[12]

Pre‑market screens this morning showed Veeva on the list of notable losers despite “upbeat results” and a guidance raise, alongside other tech names under pressure. ^[13]

So what’s driving the disconnect between fundamentals and price action?

CRM client churn and Salesforce rivalry grab headlines

The main concern isn’t the quarter Veeva just reported — it’s what comes next for Vault CRM and the company’s top‑tier pharma relationships.

Several reports today highlighted that Veeva now expects to retain 14 of the top 20 biopharma companies as customers for Vault CRM, while six of those top 20 will rely on Salesforce instead. ^[14]

That update builds on Veeva’s 2022 decision to end its long‑standing partnership with Salesforce and launch its own CRM platform. Investors have been watching closely to see how many large pharma clients would choose to migrate to Vault CRM versus sticking with Salesforce.

Stifel, in a note cited by Investing.com, estimated that the loss of several top‑20 CRM clients may create only a 2–3% revenue headwind over the next five years, but acknowledged that the market appears “over‑indexed” to this risk. ^[15]
Some analysts also worry that these shifts could signal intensifying competition in life‑sciences CRM, a franchise that has historically been one of Veeva’s crown jewels. ^[16]

In other words, the stock is reacting less to Q3’s solid numbers and more to future share‑of‑wallet dynamics between Veeva and Salesforce in the commercial tech stack of global pharma.

Analyst moves today: Targets come down, but sentiment stays mixed‑positive

Friday has brought a wave of fresh analyst commentary on VEEV, much of it directly tied to the Q3 print and the CRM narrative.

Raymond James: Outperform, target cut to $320

Raymond James lowered its price target to $320 from $340 while keeping an Outperform rating. The firm praised Veeva’s “impressive execution and strategic importance with pharma customers,” noting that Q3 results and Q4 guidance were ahead of expectations, but pointed to concerns around the longer‑term commercial growth trajectory amid CRM transitions. ^[17]

BMO Capital: Market Perform at $300

BMO Capital reiterated a Market Perform rating and $300 target, observing that Q3 revenue and EBIT beat consensus by roughly 2–4% but calling out that EBIT outperformance was the smallest in eight quarters and largely telegraphed at Veeva’s October investor day. ^[18]

BMO also highlighted Veeva’s revised expectation for fewer “top‑20” CRM clients fully migrating to Vault, a key narrative underpinning its more cautious stance. ^[19]

Canaccord Genuity: Hold, target lowered to $280

Canaccord Genuity cut its VEEV price target to $280 from $300 and maintained a Hold rating. ^[20] The firm emphasized:

Solid Q3 performance with 17% subscription revenue growth and 13% normalized billings growth
Veeva’s ~44% trailing free cash flow margin and net‑cash balance sheet
A concern that the valuation, at a mid‑50s P/E, already prices in much of that strength while growth expectations are gradually normalizing. ^[21]

Needham: Reaffirmed Buy, $355 target

On the more bullish side, Needham reiterated a Buy rating and $355 target in a note today, signaling continued confidence in the company’s long‑term growth and its leadership position in life‑sciences cloud software. ^[22]

The Needham note, as summarized by GuruFocus, sits within a broader analyst landscape where:

The average one‑year target is around the low $300s (roughly $315–$320 depending on the source)
Consensus recommendation remains tilted toward “Outperform” / “Moderate Buy” across more than 30 covering analysts. ^[23]

Bank of America: Hold on limited upside

A separate note summarized by TipRanks from Bank of America Securities maintains a Hold rating and $304 price target, citing strong execution but “limited upside” and lingering uncertainty around the CRM transition as reasons not to move more bullish just yet. ^[24]

Taken together, today’s research suggests that few on Wall Street doubt Veeva’s quality or strategic position — the debate is about how much to pay for a high‑margin, mid‑teens grower in the midst of a critical product transition.

Institutional investors continue to back VEEV

While short‑term traders digest the CRM headlines, long‑term institutional holders have been adding to positions, according to recent 13F filings highlighted today.

Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake by 1.4% in Q2, to about 14.97 million shares, now owning 9.16% of the company — a position valued at roughly $4.31 billion at the time of filing. ^[25]
Cumberland Partners Ltd boosted its holdings by 8.7%, to 12,500 shares valued around $3.6 million. ^[26]

MarketBeat data show that institutional investors and hedge funds collectively own about 88% of Veeva’s outstanding shares, underscoring its profile as a core holding in many growth and healthcare‑focused portfolios. ^[27]

Growth engines: AI, Vault CRM and Development Cloud

While CRM churn dominates today’s headlines, Veeva is also leaning hard into new growth areas that could matter more over the next five to ten years.

Veeva AI: Industry‑specific agents coming to market

In its Q3 release, Veeva highlighted rapid progress with Veeva AI, a program to deliver deep, industry‑specific AI agents embedded directly into its applications. ^[28]

First AI agents for CRM and commercial content are scheduled for early December 2025.
Additional agents for R&D, quality and more commercial workflows are planned for 2026.

These agents are designed to automate complex workflows — from content generation and compliance checks to next‑best‑action recommendations for field reps — in a way that’s tailored to the stringent regulatory environment of life sciences.

Vault CRM: New customers, global rollouts

Despite the controversy around a handful of departing large clients, Vault CRM itself is gaining traction: ^[29]

23 new customers added in the quarter
115 customers now live on Vault CRM worldwide
A major rollout at a top‑20 biopharma in Japan, demonstrating the platform’s ability to handle large, global deployments

Development Cloud: R&D transformation opportunity

Veeva’s Development Cloud — which spans clinical, regulatory, quality and safety applications — is emerging as a major long‑term growth driver: ^[30]

Three top‑20 biopharma companies in Q3 selected Development Cloud modules as their enterprise standard (Veeva Study Startup, Study Training, and Safety).
A third top‑20 biopharma went live on Veeva Safety, as the industry modernizes pharmacovigilance with cloud‑native platforms.

Veeva Basics: Expanding reach among emerging biotechs

Earlier this month, Veeva announced that more than 100 emerging biotech companies have adopted Veeva Basics, a pre‑configured, validated bundle of Vault‑based applications for clinical, regulatory and quality. ^[31]

New modules, including LIMS Basics (for lab and CMO oversight) and PromoMats Basics (for compliant promo content management), are slated for early 2026 — a move that deepens Veeva’s reach among smaller, fast‑growing drug developers. ^[32]

Commercial Summit & AI narrative

At its 2025 Veeva Commercial Summit in Spain, the company showcased ongoing AI innovation and highlighted wins like Gilead Sciences committing to Vault CRM with AI‑enabled commercial execution — reinforcing the idea that, for many large clients, Veeva remains a central technology partner. ^[33]

Valuation check: Is the sell‑off overdone?

Today’s drop leaves Veeva trading around:

$245–246 per share
A trailing P/E in the mid‑50s
Revenue growing about 16% year over year and free cash flow margins near 40–45%. ^[34]

From a high level:

Points the bulls will emphasize

Highly recurring subscription model (subscriptions are ~85% of revenue). ^[35]
Deep vertical specialization in life sciences with high switching costs.
Strong balance sheet with net cash and robust free cash flow. ^[36]
Multiple growth vectors: Vault CRM, Development Cloud, Veeva AI, and Veeva Basics. ^[37]

What the bears (or cautious holders) are watching

The loss of some top‑20 CRM clients and risk that more follow over time. ^[38]
Potential deceleration in EBIT outperformance relative to expectations. ^[39]
A valuation that remains elevated versus broader software peers, even after today’s pullback. ^[40]

Analyst consensus still points to double‑digit upside from current levels based on average price targets in the low‑to‑mid $300s, but today’s reaction shows that the market wants clearer proof that CRM churn is manageable and that AI‑driven growth can offset any near‑term drag. ^[41]

What to watch next

For investors following Veeva Systems after today’s volatility, the key upcoming signposts include:

Early December 2025: Launch and customer feedback on the first wave of Veeva AI agents in CRM and commercial content. ^[42]
Customer commentary: Any updates on how many top‑20 and mid‑market customers commit to Vault CRM vs. competitors through 2026. ^[43]
Adoption of Development Cloud & Veeva Basics: New logos and expansions, particularly among large biopharmas and emerging biotech companies. ^[44]
Next earnings (Q4 FY26): Whether Veeva can sustain mid‑teens growth and high margins while navigating CRM turbulence. ^[45]

Bottom line

On 21 November 2025, Veeva Systems finds itself in a classic “great quarter, messy narrative” situation. The company is growing solidly, raising guidance, and investing heavily in AI and cloud platforms that could define the future of life‑sciences software — yet investors are laser‑focused on a handful of lost flagship CRM clients and a rich valuation multiple.

Whether today’s sell‑off proves to be a buying opportunity or the start of a deeper re‑rating will depend on how convincingly Veeva can show that:

Its AI and Development Cloud initiatives expand its addressable market, and
The CRM transition remains a manageable headwind, not a structural unraveling of its commercial franchise.

For now, the message from the market is clear: execution remains strong, but the bar for perfection has risen.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any securities. Always do your own research or consult a licensed financial adviser before making investment decisions.

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