Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Shares Climb 1.3% – Here’s What Happened

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM)’s stock price shot up 1.3% on Thursday. The company traded as high as $227.95 and last traded at $227.5750. Approximately 5,409,562 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 61% from the average daily volume of 13,729,900 shares. The stock had previously closed at $224.56.

Trending Headlines about Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Institutional buying supports a software rebound. Salesforce is highlighted as a leading beneficiary of renewed institutional interest in software companies with sticky enterprise customers and valuable data. Analysts cited improving money-flow and relative-strength indicators, while Salesforce’s switching costs and investment in agentic AI could support customer retention and larger deals. Wall Street Left Software for Dead: 4 Stocks Institutions Are Buying Back
• Positive Sentiment: Valuation and cash generation remain attractive. Salesforce reportedly generated free cash flow equivalent to 8.2% of its market value, well above the S&P 500 median. Its depressed forward valuation, strong profitability and cash generation could provide room for a re-rating if AI products improve growth, renewals or deal sizes. Should You Buy Salesforce Stock For Its Cash?
• Positive Sentiment: Broker recommendations remain favorable. The average brokerage recommendation indicates a Buy, which may help sentiment. However, the reports caution that sell-side ratings can be overly optimistic and should not be used alone when making an investment decision. Brokers Suggest Investing in Salesforce
• Neutral Sentiment: New commerce partnership expands Salesforce’s product ecosystem. Forter was named a launch partner for Storefront Next and will provide fraud protection for Salesforce Loyalty Management. The collaboration strengthens Salesforce’s commerce-security offering, but its near-term financial impact is unclear. Salesforce Names a Launch Partner for Storefront Next
• Negative Sentiment: Migration competition remains a risk. Work4Flow launched a 90-day program designed to move enterprise customers from Salesforce to ServiceNow CRM, including data, workflows and custom business logic. While one program is unlikely to materially affect Salesforce immediately, it highlights competitive pressure and the importance of retaining large customers. Work4Flow Launches Salesforce-to-ServiceNow Migration Program

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, September 17th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Salesforce from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 24th. Stephens reiterated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $289.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Friday, September 18th. Scotiabank downgraded shares of Salesforce from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Finally, HC Wainwright cut Salesforce to a “negative” rating in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty have assigned a Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $275.14.

Salesforce Trading Up 0.5%

The stock has a market cap of $188.43 billion, a PE ratio of 20.87, a PEG ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.26. 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 business has a 50-day moving average of $226.55 and a 200 day moving average of $192.92.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.27 by $2.63. Salesforce had a net margin of 21.99% and a return on equity of 24.90%. The business had revenue of $11.35 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.33 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.91 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. 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 12.82 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 17th were issued a dividend of $0.44 per share. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, September 17th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is presently 16.04%.

Insider Activity at Salesforce

In other news, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 4,176 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, September 18th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $239.33 per share, with a total value of $999,442.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 18,748 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,486,958.84. The trade was a 28.66% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Craig Conway sold 4,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the director owned 5,437 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,416,936.57. This represents a 45.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Corporate insiders own 3.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Salesforce

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in Salesforce during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $11,396,844,000. Bank of America Corp DE acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce during the second quarter worth approximately $1,914,086,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its position in shares of Salesforce by 130.2% in the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 12,659,217 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $2,363,096,000 after acquiring an additional 7,160,302 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc bought a new position in Salesforce during the second quarter worth $927,332,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new position in Salesforce during the 2nd quarter valued at $844,928,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

About Salesforce

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.