Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Shares Down 1.3% – Here’s Why

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) shares traded down 1.3% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as low as $229.81 and last traded at $233.36. 11,868,545 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 15% from the average session volume of 14,026,866 shares. The stock had previously closed at $236.42.

Trending Headlines about Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce’s agentic-AI business, including Agentforce, is reportedly scaling rapidly. Some analysts argue the market continues to value CRM primarily as a traditional customer-relationship-management company, creating potential upside if AI monetization accelerates. The AI Software Story Wall Street Is Underrating
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street’s published targets imply further appreciation, with the average target cited by MarketBeat at $275.14. Articles identifying Salesforce as a high-upside large-cap technology stock could support investor interest heading into 2027. 3 Big Tech Stocks With the Most Upside Right Now
• Positive Sentiment: Director David Blair Kirk purchased 4,176 shares for approximately $999,000, increasing his direct ownership by 28.66%. The insider purchase may be viewed as a confidence signal. Salesforce also offers a quarterly dividend of $0.44 per share, or $1.76 annualized. SEC insider transaction filing
• Positive Sentiment: Recent fundamentals remain supportive: Salesforce exceeded quarterly EPS expectations, generated $11.35 billion in revenue, and grew revenue 10.8% year over year. Management’s fiscal 2027 EPS guidance also points to continued earnings growth.
• Neutral Sentiment: Comparisons with ServiceNow and Twilio frame CRM’s investment case around valuation, growth rates, margins and AI exposure. Twilio is viewed as the faster-growing option, while Salesforce offers greater scale and a lower valuation profile. Salesforce vs. ServiceNow
• Negative Sentiment: Technology stocks, including Salesforce, faced selling pressure as investors locked in profits after a strong rally in AI-related shares. This appears to be a market-positioning factor rather than a new Salesforce-specific fundamental setback. AMD, Intel, Salesforce, GameStop, and More Stocks That Explain Today’s Market

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. DA Davidson set a $225.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, September 17th. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, August 27th. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, September 17th. Freedom Broker lifted their target price on Salesforce from $230.00 to $295.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 17th. Finally, KeyCorp cut Salesforce from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty have issued a Buy rating, fourteen have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $275.14.

Salesforce Stock Performance

The company has a current ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02. The company’s 50-day moving average is $210.22 and its two-hundred day moving average is $189.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $192.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.27, a P/E/G ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 1.20.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.27 by $2.63. The company had revenue of $11.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.33 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 21.99% and a return on equity of 24.90%. Salesforce’s revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.91 earnings per share. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 16.670-16.710 EPS and its Q3 2027 guidance at 3.420-3.440 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.82 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 8th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 17th will be given a dividend of $0.44 per share. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 17th. Salesforce’s payout ratio is 16.04%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Salesforce news, Director Craig Conway sold 4,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $260.61, for a total transaction of $1,172,745.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 5,437 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,416,936.57. This trade represents a 45.29% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 4,176 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 18th. The shares were bought at an average price of $239.33 per share, for a total transaction of $999,442.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 18,748 shares in the company, valued at $4,486,958.84. This represents a 28.66% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. 3.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Salesforce

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp raised its position in Salesforce by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 50,080,230 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $13,286,909,000 after acquiring an additional 659,573 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $11,396,844,000. Capital International Investors raised its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 13.3% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 22,721,010 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $6,019,199,000 after purchasing an additional 2,669,891 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 3.8% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 21,782,556 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $5,751,073,000 after buying an additional 791,345 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors grew its position in Salesforce by 13.5% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 19,672,684 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $5,211,515,000 after buying an additional 2,347,478 shares during the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Salesforce

Salesforce, Inc is a cloud-based software company that provides customer relationship management (CRM) technology and related enterprise applications. Its platform helps organizations manage sales, customer service, marketing, commerce, data analytics and business operations through subscription-based software and cloud services.

The company’s product portfolio includes Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Commerce Cloud, Data Cloud and the Salesforce Platform. Salesforce also offers Slack for workplace collaboration, Tableau for data visualization and analytics, MuleSoft for application integration, and artificial intelligence capabilities, including its Agentforce platform for building and deploying AI agents.

Founded in 1999, Salesforce is headquartered in San Francisco, California, and serves businesses and organizations across a broad range of industries and geographic markets worldwide.