Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Stock Price Up 2% – Here’s What Happened

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) shot up 2% during mid-day trading on Wednesday. The company traded as high as $233.76 and last traded at $229.8420. Approximately 9,698,500 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 30% from the average daily volume of 13,939,063 shares. The stock had previously closed at $225.31.

Key Headlines Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce agreed to acquire Listen Labs, an AI-powered customer research and human-simulation platform. Its AI agents can design studies, conduct research and synthesize insights, potentially reducing work that traditionally takes months to a matter of days. The deal strengthens Salesforce’s AI capabilities and was the clearest near-term reason for the stock’s advance. Salesforce up after announcing Listen Labs acquisition
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce continued expanding its AI ecosystem. Stensul launched a governed content-creation beta within Marketing Cloud Next, while June AI joined the AgentExchange partner community. Enterprise controls and compliance features could make AI adoption easier for large customers. Salesforce deepens AI workflow governance
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce secured a potentially significant public-sector opportunity as the U.K.’s HMRC reportedly selected the company for a taxpayer customer-relationship-management overhaul valued at up to £2.4 billion. A contract of this scale would support long-term revenue visibility and demonstrate the durability of Salesforce’s enterprise franchise. HMRC Salesforce CRM overhaul
• Neutral Sentiment: Oppenheimer reiterated an outperform rating following a customer survey, suggesting continued confidence in Salesforce’s customer relationships and product adoption. However, the article provides limited new financial information. Oppenheimer reiterates outperform rating
• Negative Sentiment: Some investors remain concerned that Salesforce’s recent rally has raised expectations. Commentary points to the stock trading below its prior high but substantially above recent levels, meaning upcoming earnings and AI monetization must justify the valuation. A Diamond Hill investor letter also highlighted prior share-price weakness despite Salesforce’s durable franchise. Case for waiting on CRM stock

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently commented on CRM. DA Davidson set a $225.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, September 17th. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, August 27th. Freedom Broker boosted their price target on Salesforce from $230.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 17th. Daiwa Securities Group decreased their price objective on Salesforce from $295.00 to $280.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $250.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, September 17th. Three equities 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 given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Salesforce presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $275.14.

Salesforce Stock Performance

The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $217.69 and a 200 day moving average price of $191.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.84. The stock has a market cap of $189.16 billion, a PE ratio of 20.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.20.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.27 by $2.63. Salesforce had a return on equity of 24.90% and a net margin of 21.99%.The firm had revenue of $11.35 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.33 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.91 EPS. The firm’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. Research analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 8th. Investors of record on Thursday, September 17th will be paid a $0.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 17th. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 16.04%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 4,176 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 18th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $239.33 per share, with a total value of $999,442.08. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 18,748 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,486,958.84. This represents a 28.66% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Craig Conway sold 4,500 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction 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 sale, the director owned 5,437 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,416,936.57. The trade was a 45.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Corporate insiders own 3.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp raised its position in Salesforce by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 50,080,230 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $13,286,909,000 after buying an additional 659,573 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce during the second quarter worth $11,396,844,000. Capital International Investors lifted its position in Salesforce by 13.3% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 22,721,010 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $6,019,199,000 after purchasing an additional 2,669,891 shares during the period. Capital World Investors lifted its position in Salesforce by 13.5% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 19,672,684 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $5,211,515,000 after purchasing an additional 2,347,478 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 9,467,811 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $2,508,137,000 after purchasing an additional 226,013 shares during the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Salesforce Company Profile

Salesforce, Inc (NYSE: CRM) develops cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) software and enterprise applications. Its platform helps organizations manage sales, customer service, marketing, commerce, analytics, data integration and collaboration through subscription-based services.

The company’s product portfolio includes Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Commerce Cloud, Salesforce Platform, Data Cloud and Tableau. Salesforce also offers MuleSoft integration technology, Slack collaboration software and artificial intelligence capabilities through its Einstein platform.