Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Downgraded by Wall Street Zen to “Hold”

Wall Street Zen cut shares of Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report released on Saturday.

Several other analysts have also weighed in on the stock. BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on shares of Salesforce from $225.00 to $215.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Citizens Jmp restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $315.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Tuesday, July 14th. Wolfe Research downgraded shares of Salesforce from an “outperform” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Tuesday, June 16th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-four have issued a Buy rating, sixteen have issued a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $249.51.

Salesforce Trading Up 2.0%

NYSE:CRM opened at $184.34 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $150.98 billion, a PE ratio of 21.34, a P/E/G ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.18. The business’s 50 day moving average is $170.34 and its two-hundred day moving average is $185.01. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15. Salesforce has a 52 week low of $146.32 and a 52 week high of $269.11.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.13 by $0.75. The business had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.05 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 18.72% and a net margin of 18.73%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.58 EPS. 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, analysts predict that Salesforce will post 10.27 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 11th were paid a $0.44 dividend. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, June 11th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 20.37%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Salesforce

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Ballast Inc. boosted its stake in Salesforce by 54.0% during the 2nd quarter. Ballast Inc. now owns 9,737 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $1,525,000 after purchasing an additional 3,415 shares during the period. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 12.8% during the second quarter. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,383 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $217,000 after buying an additional 157 shares during the last quarter. Butensky & Cohen Financial Security Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the second quarter valued at approximately $2,941,000. Tema ETFs LLC boosted its position in shares of Salesforce by 10.6% during the second quarter. Tema ETFs LLC now owns 19,635 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $3,076,000 after buying an additional 1,885 shares during the period. Finally, West Branch Capital LLC boosted its position in shares of Salesforce by 37.4% during the second quarter. West Branch Capital LLC now owns 426 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $67,000 after buying an additional 116 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

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.