Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Shares Up 2.8% – Time to Buy?

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM)’s share price shot up 2.8% during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $199.41 and last traded at $196.2830. 13,644,005 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 0% from the average daily volume of 13,661,404 shares. The stock had previously closed at $190.97.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on CRM shares. Phillip Securities lowered Salesforce from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $253.00 to $166.00 in a research report on Monday, June 29th. TD Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Friday, June 12th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Salesforce from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, August 1st. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Salesforce from $187.00 to $204.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Susquehanna began coverage on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. They set a “neutral” rating for the company. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-four have issued a Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $249.49.

Salesforce Price Performance

The company has a 50-day moving average of $171.58 and a 200 day moving average of $181.69. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15. The stock has a market capitalization of $160.76 billion, a PE ratio of 22.72, a PEG ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 1.16.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. Salesforce had a return on equity of 18.72% and a net margin of 18.73%.The company had revenue of $11.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.05 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.58 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 14.060-14.120 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 3.250-3.270 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.27 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 11th were paid a $0.44 dividend. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 11th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 20.37%.

Institutional Trading of Salesforce

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of CRM. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC purchased a new position in Salesforce in the 4th quarter worth approximately $25,000. Gilpin Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Birchwood Financial Partners Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Swiss RE Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Finally, Dogwood Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Salesforce by 285.7% during the fourth quarter. Dogwood Wealth Management LLC now owns 108 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

About Salesforce

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.