Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Downgraded by Wall Street Zen to “Hold”

Wall Street Zen cut shares of Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report report published on Saturday.

Other analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Salesforce from $197.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, March 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of Salesforce from $235.00 to $210.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of Salesforce from $398.00 to $287.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. UBS Group lowered their price target on Salesforce from $260.00 to $200.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their price target on Salesforce from $290.00 to $210.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have issued a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Salesforce has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $279.18.

Salesforce Trading Up 0.5%

Shares of CRM stock opened at $182.13 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $168.10 billion, a PE ratio of 23.32, a P/E/G ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.29. Salesforce has a 1-year low of $163.52 and a 1-year high of $296.05. The business has a 50-day moving average of $187.87 and a 200 day moving average of $224.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 0.76 and a quick ratio of 0.76.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.05 by $0.76. The business had revenue of $11.20 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.18 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 17.96% and a return on equity of 15.38%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.78 EPS. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 13.110-13.190 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.110-3.130 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Salesforce will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.44 per share. This is a boost from Salesforce’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 9th. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.0%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is 22.54%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Salesforce

In related news, Director Laura Alber bought 2,571 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 19th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $194.58 per share, with a total value of $500,265.18. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 9,530 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,854,347.40. This represents a 36.94% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 2,570 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $194.62 per share, for a total transaction of $500,173.40. Following the purchase, the director owned 13,689 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,664,153.18. This represents a 23.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. 3.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC purchased a new position in Salesforce in the 4th quarter worth about $25,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund bought a new position in Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth about $26,000. Key Capital Management INC bought a new position in Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth about $26,000. Gilpin Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth about $26,000. Finally, Legacy Bridge LLC bought a new position in Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth about $27,000. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Key Salesforce News

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: BTIG reaffirmed a “buy” on CRM and set a $255 price target (≈40% upside vs. current levels), giving institutional backing that can support further upside. BTIG Reaffirms Buy on Salesforce
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce launched Headless 360, positioning its full platform as infrastructure for AI agents — a strategic move that could broaden addressable market and accelerate enterprise AI spending across the Salesforce stack. Salesforce launches Headless 360
• Positive Sentiment: Customer wins/expansions show traction for Agentforce 360 — travel platform Engine expanded use of AI agents and Slack, automating ~50% of chat cases, cutting handle time ~15% and improving satisfaction, which supports revenue upsell potential for contact-center automation. Engine expands Agentforce 360
• Positive Sentiment: Data 360 adoption shows strong momentum (reported ~200% ARR growth), highlighting a potential new growth driver for larger enterprise contracts and higher‑value deals. CRM’s Data 360 Momentum Builds
• Neutral Sentiment: Software-sector momentum helped lift CRM amid a broad bounce in the IGV ETF; sector flows can amplify CRM moves but are not company‑specific fundamentals. Software Stocks Finish Week Hot
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst and media bullishness (e.g., opinion pieces expressing strong conviction) supports sentiment but is not new fundamental data; it can sustain momentum if paired with continued execution. Why I Have Strong Conviction In This Stock
• Negative Sentiment: A recent CMSWire review of Agentforce highlights strengths but also gaps versus rivals (implementation complexity and feature gaps in some areas), a reminder that competitive execution and product parity risk could temper adoption speed. Salesforce Agentforce Contact Center Review

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.