Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Stock Falls 4.6% – Here’s Why

Shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) traded down 4.6% during trading on Thursday. The stock traded as low as $225.04 and last traded at $231.0570. Approximately 7,664,010 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 42% from the average session volume of 13,270,587 shares. The stock had previously closed at $242.11.

Trending Headlines about Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce continues to be viewed as a leading customer relationship management platform, with autonomous AI agents integrated across its software suite. The company’s strong free-cash-flow generation and continued revenue growth support its long-term investment case. Salesforce vs. Datadog: Which Technology Stock Is a Better Buy in 2026?
• Positive Sentiment: A market analysis modestly increased Salesforce’s fair-value estimate as views on its AI strategy and Braze-related opportunities evolved, suggesting some analysts see additional upside from AI monetization and customer engagement products. Salesforce Stock Sees Modest Fair Value Lift
• Positive Sentiment: Navatar announced Claude-powered recommendations and workflow actions for private-equity and M&A users built on Salesforce, providing another example of third-party AI functionality expanding the platform’s ecosystem. Navatar Brings Claude-Powered Recommendations and Actions to CRM

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CRM has been the subject of several recent research reports. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of Salesforce from $275.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, September 17th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, September 17th. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Tuesday, October 20th. DA Davidson boosted their price objective on Salesforce from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 21st. Finally, Mizuho upped their target price on Salesforce from $265.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 16th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-two have given a Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $278.98.

Salesforce Stock Down 4.6%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 0.84 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $237.98 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $199.18. The company has a market cap of $190.16 billion, a PE ratio of 21.06, a PEG ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.26.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.27 by $2.63. Salesforce had a net margin of 21.99% and a return on equity of 24.90%. The business had revenue of $11.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.33 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.91 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. 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 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity at Salesforce

In other news, Director Craig Conway sold 4,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the director owned 5,437 shares in the company, valued at $1,416,936.57. This trade represents a 45.29% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 4,176 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 18th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $239.33 per share, for a total transaction of $999,442.08. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 18,748 shares in the company, valued at $4,486,958.84. This trade represents a 28.66% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. 3.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Salesforce

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Trek Financial LLC raised its stake in Salesforce by 17.3% in the 3rd quarter. Trek Financial LLC now owns 14,873 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $3,414,000 after purchasing an additional 2,195 shares during the last quarter. True Freedom Investing LLC boosted its stake in Salesforce by 11.9% during the 3rd quarter. True Freedom Investing LLC now owns 19,350 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $4,442,000 after purchasing an additional 2,058 shares during the last quarter. Woodmont Investment Counsel LLC grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 0.6% during the third quarter. Woodmont Investment Counsel LLC now owns 18,196 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $4,177,000 after buying an additional 117 shares in the last quarter. Traynor Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the third quarter worth $234,000. Finally, Pinkerton Wealth LLC grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 11.6% during the third quarter. Pinkerton Wealth LLC now owns 19,409 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $4,456,000 after buying an additional 2,018 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

About Salesforce

Salesforce, Inc (NYSE: CRM) is a global enterprise software company that provides cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) technology. Its platform helps organizations manage sales, customer service, marketing, commerce, data, analytics and interactions with customers across digital and traditional channels.

The company’s products include Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Commerce Cloud and Data Cloud. Salesforce also offers Tableau for data visualization and analytics, MuleSoft for application integration, and Slack for workplace collaboration.