Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Trading Down 1.1% – Here’s Why

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM)’s stock price traded down 1.1% on Monday . The stock traded as low as $146.32 and last traded at $150.1690. 20,340,697 shares were traded during mid-day trading, an increase of 45% from the average daily volume of 13,983,799 shares. The stock had previously closed at $151.78.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Wolfe Research reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Monday, June 15th. Bank of America began coverage on Salesforce in a report on Monday, May 18th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $160.00 price target for the company. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Tuesday, June 16th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $250.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, Citigroup reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have issued a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and four have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $257.61.

Salesforce Stock Down 1.1%

The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $177.42 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $204.15. The firm has a market cap of $122.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.38, a PEG ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 1.16.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.13 by $0.75. The business had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.05 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 18.72% and a net margin of 18.73%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.58 earnings per share. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 14.060-14.120 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 3.250-3.270 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.44 per share. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 11th. Salesforce’s payout ratio is presently 20.37%.

Salesforce announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase program on Monday, March 16th that permits the company to buyback $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the CRM provider to reacquire up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Salesforce

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CRM. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 89,843,166 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $23,800,353,000 after acquiring an additional 270,913 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its stake in Salesforce by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 50,080,230 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $13,286,909,000 after purchasing an additional 659,573 shares in the last quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP raised its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 24,056.7% during the fourth quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 47,385,511 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $12,552,896,000 after purchasing an additional 47,189,352 shares during the period. Capital International Investors raised its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 13.3% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 22,721,010 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $6,019,199,000 after purchasing an additional 2,669,891 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Salesforce by 3.8% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 21,782,556 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $5,751,073,000 after purchasing an additional 791,345 shares in the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Salesforce Company Profile

Salesforce, founded in 1999 and headquartered in San Francisco, is a global provider of cloud-based software focused on customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise applications. The company popularized the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model for CRM and has built a broad portfolio of products designed to help organizations manage sales, service, marketing, commerce and analytics through a unified, cloud-first platform.

Core offerings include Sales Cloud for sales automation, Service Cloud for customer support, Marketing Cloud for digital marketing and engagement, and Commerce Cloud for e-commerce.