Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Shares Down 2.4% – Here’s Why

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM)’s share price traded down 2.4% during trading on Thursday . The company traded as low as $163.31 and last traded at $166.8060. 14,649,212 shares changed hands during trading, an increase of 9% from the average session volume of 13,443,295 shares. The stock had previously closed at $170.92.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. BTIG Research reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $255.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on Salesforce from $300.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Salesforce from $365.00 to $320.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. DA Davidson reduced their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $200.00 to $175.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have assigned a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $259.26.

Salesforce Stock Performance

The company has a market cap of $136.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $180.90 and a 200 day moving average price of $207.60.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.05 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.58 EPS. Salesforce’s quarterly 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. As a group, analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 11th will be given a dividend of $0.44 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 11th. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.1%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is currently 20.37%.

Salesforce announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback program on Monday, March 16th that authorizes the company to buyback $25.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the CRM provider to buy up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Salesforce

In other news, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 2,570 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $194.62 per share, with a total value of $500,173.40. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 13,689 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,664,153.18. This trade represents a 23.11% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Laura Alber purchased 2,571 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 19th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $194.58 per share, for a total transaction of $500,265.18. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 9,530 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,854,347.40. This represents a 36.94% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. Insiders own 3.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Salesforce

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of CRM. J. Stern & Co. LLP grew its stake in shares of Salesforce by 24,056.7% during the 4th quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 47,385,511 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $12,552,896,000 after acquiring an additional 47,189,352 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the fourth quarter worth $3,182,951,000. Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 159.0% during the third quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 17,325,206 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $4,106,255,000 after purchasing an additional 10,636,161 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 130.2% during the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 12,659,217 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $2,363,096,000 after purchasing an additional 7,160,302 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cardano Risk Management B.V. grew its position in Salesforce by 924.7% in the fourth quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 3,883,610 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $1,028,807,000 after purchasing an additional 3,504,605 shares in the last quarter. 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.