Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Stock Price Down 1.7% – What’s Next?

Shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) traded down 1.7% on Friday. The stock traded as low as $233.38 and last traded at $234.2370. Approximately 8,481,933 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 39% from the average session volume of 13,970,411 shares. The stock had previously closed at $238.22.

Key Headlines Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Wells Fargo raised its price target, pointing to Salesforce’s deeply embedded customer base and the possibility that Agentforce could generate approximately $1.5 billion in annual recurring revenue and help reaccelerate growth. Wells Fargo Raises Salesforce’s Price Target
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce’s AIforce launch adds an open, provider-agnostic layer designed to connect Agentforce, Data Cloud 360, AWS and Google Cloud, strengthening the company’s positioning as an enterprise AI platform. Salesforce AIforce Layer
• Positive Sentiment: Commentary on Salesforce’s stake in Anthropic argues that the investment could provide strategic upside and optionality to help offset or retire debt associated with the company’s $25 billion share-repurchase program. Salesforce Anthropic Stake
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce’s Agents for Impact program highlights practical AI deployments in India’s social sector, supporting the broader adoption narrative for Agentforce. Agents for Impact
• Positive Sentiment: Jefferies reaffirmed its buy rating, while bullish commentary emphasizes Salesforce’s data and customer relationships as strategic assets that AI developers may need. Why Investors Keep Buying Salesforce
• Neutral Sentiment: Post-earnings analysis notes that CRM has underperformed since its latest report, leaving investors focused on forward estimates and whether upcoming results can validate the AI growth strategy. Salesforce Post-Earnings Analysis
• Neutral Sentiment: A separate analysis questions whether Salesforce’s AI products can generate meaningful revenue and accelerate growth enough to justify its recent valuation gains. What Is Salesforce No Longer Telling You?
• Neutral Sentiment: A Salesforce-versus-Zendesk comparison provides competitive context but does not identify a new company-specific catalyst. Salesforce vs. Zendesk Sell Comparison
• Negative Sentiment: Security researchers disclosed three Agentforce vulnerabilities reportedly enabling zero-click CRM data theft and AI-agent impersonation. The disclosures raise concerns about enterprise adoption, customer trust, remediation costs and potential reputational damage. Zero-Click Vulnerabilities in Salesforce Agentforce

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley set a $315.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Wednesday, September 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 27th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Salesforce from $250.00 to $285.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 17th. BTIG Research reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $300.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Wednesday, September 2nd. Finally, Raymond James Financial reissued a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, August 27th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty have assigned a Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $275.14.

Salesforce Stock Performance

The stock’s 50-day moving average is $214.26 and its 200-day moving average is $190.30. The firm has a market capitalization of $192.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.35, a PEG ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a current ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02.

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

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Salesforce

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in CRM. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. increased its holdings in Salesforce by 11.9% in the second quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 43,398 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $6,790,000 after purchasing an additional 4,618 shares in the last quarter. Andra AP fonden grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 4,855.1% during the 2nd quarter. Andra AP fonden now owns 168,472 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $26,393,000 after buying an additional 165,072 shares during the period. Security National Bank of Sioux City Iowa IA bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the 2nd quarter valued at $52,000. Wellington Altus USA Inc. lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 117.2% during the 2nd quarter. Wellington Altus USA Inc. now owns 315 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $49,000 after acquiring an additional 170 shares during the period. Finally, Anchor Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in Salesforce by 184.5% in the second quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 17,983 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $2,817,000 after purchasing an additional 11,663 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Company Profile

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.