Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Trading Down 3.9% – What’s Next?

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) shares fell 3.9% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $245.89 and last traded at $249.0250. Approximately 15,307,202 shares were traded during mid-day trading, an increase of 9% from the average session volume of 14,075,713 shares. The stock had previously closed at $259.23.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have weighed in on CRM. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Salesforce from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, August 27th. Truist Financial reissued a “buy” rating and set a $300.00 price target (up from $280.00) on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, August 27th. Daiwa Securities Group dropped 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, Piper Sandler cut Salesforce from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have assigned a Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $266.50.

Salesforce Trading Down 3.9%

The business has a 50-day moving average of $193.90 and a 200 day moving average of $185.49. The stock has a market cap of $204.95 billion, a PE ratio of 22.70, a PEG ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.84.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.27 by $2.63. Salesforce had a net margin of 21.99% and a return on equity of 24.90%. The company 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 firm earned $2.91 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue 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. Equities research analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 8th. Investors of record on Thursday, September 17th will be given a dividend of $0.44 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 17th. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 16.04%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Salesforce news, Director Craig Conway sold 4,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.61, for a total value of $1,172,745.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 5,437 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,416,936.57. The trade was a 45.29% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 3.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Salesforce

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC purchased a new position in Salesforce during the fourth quarter worth about $25,000. Gilpin Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Salesforce in the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Birchwood Financial Partners Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter valued at about $28,000. Swiss RE Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter valued at about $28,000. Finally, Texas Capital Bancshares Inc TX purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 3rd quarter worth about $28,000. Hedge funds and other 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.