Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Stock Price Up 5.4% – Time to Buy?

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) shares rose 5.4% during mid-day trading on Friday . The company traded as high as $158.46 and last traded at $158.2260. 19,867,233 shares changed hands during trading, an increase of 41% from the average session volume of 14,057,113 shares. The stock had previously closed at $150.19.

Key Stories Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: TD Cowen reiterated a Buy rating and a $240 price target on Salesforce, citing AI momentum and growth tied to Agentforce, which reinforces the bullish long-term case for the stock. TD Cowen Reaffirms Buy Rating on Salesforce (CRM) as AI Momentum and Agentforce Drive Growth
• Positive Sentiment: Coverage of Salesforce’s Agentforce and broader AI strategy suggests the company is still seen as a serious player in enterprise AI, which may help offset fears that legacy software growth is slowing. Salesforce Agentforce: A Comprehensive Enterprise Cheat Sheet and Review
• Neutral Sentiment: Several commentary pieces argue Salesforce has been overly sold off and may be undervalued after its post-earnings decline, but these are more valuation arguments than fresh catalysts. Salesforce: Taking Advantage Of The Market’s Misunderstanding Of Enterprise Software
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce’s acquisition of m3ter to expand dynamic pricing tools adds to its AI CRM platform, but the immediate stock impact looks limited so far. Salesforce expands AI CRM with acquisition of m3ter for dynamic pricing
• Negative Sentiment: One article notes Salesforce is still down sharply since its last earnings report, reminding investors that sentiment remains fragile despite the recent rebound. Salesforce (CRM) Down 14.8% Since Last Earnings Report: Can It Rebound?
• Negative Sentiment: Another report says Salesforce is trying to defend its AI position with new tools for RIAs, but experts are raising concerns about cost, implementation, and benefits, which could limit enthusiasm. Salesforce tries to catch up on AI — and halt precipitous stock slide — with launch of ‘Agentic Advisor’ for RIAs

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on CRM. DA Davidson decreased their target price on shares of Salesforce from $200.00 to $175.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Macquarie Infrastructure dropped their price target on shares of Salesforce from $200.00 to $190.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, June 4th. Monness Crespi & Hardt raised shares of Salesforce from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $200.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Finally, HC Wainwright downgraded Salesforce to a “negative” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have issued a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and four have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Salesforce currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $257.61.

Salesforce Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79. The company has a market capitalization of $129.59 billion, a PE ratio of 18.31, a PEG ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $175.56 and a 200 day moving average price of $201.20.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.13 by $0.75. Salesforce had a net margin of 18.73% and a return on equity of 18.72%. The business had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.05 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.58 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 14.060-14.120 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 3.250-3.270 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 11th will be paid a $0.44 dividend. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 11th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is 20.37%.

Salesforce announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Monday, March 16th that authorizes the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the CRM provider to reacquire up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Salesforce

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 89,843,166 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $23,800,353,000 after acquiring an additional 270,913 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 50,080,230 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $13,286,909,000 after purchasing an additional 659,573 shares during the period. J. Stern & Co. LLP increased its stake in Salesforce by 24,056.7% during the fourth quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 47,385,511 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $12,552,896,000 after purchasing an additional 47,189,352 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors increased its stake 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 last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 3.8% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 21,782,556 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $5,751,073,000 after purchasing an additional 791,345 shares during the period. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.