Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Stock Price Down 2.2% – Time to Sell?

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) shares were down 2.2% on Monday. The company traded as low as $227.81 and last traded at $229.6240. Approximately 6,360,388 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 54% from the average daily volume of 13,849,668 shares. The stock had previously closed at $234.69.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have commented on the stock. BTIG Research reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $300.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a report on Wednesday, September 2nd. KeyCorp lowered Salesforce from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 8th. Mizuho upped their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $265.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 16th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on shares of Salesforce from $275.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, September 17th. Finally, Citigroup reissued a “market outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Friday, September 18th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty have given a Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Salesforce currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $275.14.

Salesforce Stock Down 2.3%

The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $224.01 and a 200-day simple moving average of $192.23. 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 company has a market cap of $184.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.26.

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

Salesforce Announces Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Craig Conway sold 4,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $260.61, for a total transaction of $1,172,745.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 5,437 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,416,936.57. The trade was a 45.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director David Blair Kirk bought 4,176 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 18th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $239.33 per share, for a total transaction of $999,442.08. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 18,748 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,486,958.84. The trade was a 28.66% increase in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. 3.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in CRM. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC acquired a new position in Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. ABS Direct Equity Fund LLC acquired a new stake in Salesforce during the second quarter worth approximately $25,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Persistent Asset Partners Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $27,000. Finally, Costello Asset Management INC boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 410.3% in the 1st quarter. Costello Asset Management INC now owns 148 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 119 shares in the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.