Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Trading Up 4% – Should You Buy?

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM)’s share price rose 4% during trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $190.18 and last traded at $188.6870. Approximately 16,739,957 shares were traded during mid-day trading, an increase of 21% from the average daily volume of 13,886,396 shares. The stock had previously closed at $181.50.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on CRM. UBS Group reiterated an “equal weight” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Tuesday, July 21st. KeyCorp downgraded Salesforce from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 8th. DA Davidson reduced their target price on Salesforce from $200.00 to $175.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Guggenheim upgraded Salesforce from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $228.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. Finally, BTIG Research reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $255.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-four have given a Buy rating, sixteen have given a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Salesforce presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $249.51.

Salesforce Stock Up 4.0%

The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $170.00 and a 200 day simple moving average of $186.08. The company has a market capitalization of $154.53 billion, a PE ratio of 21.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.05 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.58 earnings per share. The company’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. On average, research analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Salesforce

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC acquired a new position in Salesforce in the 4th quarter worth $25,000. Key Capital Management INC acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Gilpin Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Legacy Bridge LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. Finally, Costello Asset Management INC boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 410.3% in the first quarter. Costello Asset Management INC now owns 148 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 119 shares during the last quarter. 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.