Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Shares Down 2.5% After Analyst Downgrade

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM)’s stock price fell 2.5% during mid-day trading on Friday after DA Davidson lowered their price target on the stock from $235.00 to $200.00. DA Davidson currently has a neutral rating on the stock. Salesforce traded as low as $189.92 and last traded at $194.47. 16,209,539 shares were traded during mid-day trading, an increase of 28% from the average session volume of 12,622,304 shares. The stock had previously closed at $199.47.

Several other equities analysts also recently issued reports on the company. Roth Mkm cut their price objective on Salesforce from $395.00 to $325.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered their target price on Salesforce from $223.00 to $194.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Salesforce from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 28th. Macquarie Infrastructure increased their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, December 4th. Finally, Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Salesforce from $265.00 to $252.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have issued a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $283.06.

Insider Buying and Selling at Salesforce

In related news, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 1,936 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 17th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $258.64 per share, with a total value of $500,727.04. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 10,677 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,761,499.28. This trade represents a 22.15% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Parker Harris sold 134,662 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $234.70, for a total value of $31,605,171.40. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 139,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $32,803,314.90. This represents a 49.07% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 3.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

More Salesforce News

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q4 beat and raised outlook: CRM reported a large EPS beat ($3.81 vs. ~$3.05 est.) with double‑digit revenue growth and stronger margins; management issued FY27 and Q1 EPS guidance above consensus, supporting the upside case. Salesforce Q4 earnings & guidance (MarketBeat)
• Positive Sentiment: Big capital return: Salesforce authorized an additional $50 billion buyback and raised the quarterly dividend — a clear management signal that they view the shares as attractive and that buybacks will support EPS. CNBC: $50B buyback and dividend
• Positive Sentiment: Bull case on AI traction: Analysts such as Wedbush and MarketBeat note Agentforce and AI monetization as real early traction — supporting the narrative that AI will augment, not replace, CRM’s software moat. Investopedia: Wedbush bullish on AI
• Neutral Sentiment: Sector washout / potential bottoming: Coverage argues the broader SaaS selloff (the “SaaSpocalypse”) may be overdone and that oversold technicals create a rebound setup — but sentiment remains fragile. MarketBeat: SaaS rebound thesis
• Neutral Sentiment: Mixed analyst reactions: Many firms trimmed price targets after earnings (TD Cowen, Mizuho, Stifel, Barclays, etc.), but ratings range from Underperform to Outperform — leaving consensus upside wide and creating continued volatility. Benzinga: analyst price target moves
• Negative Sentiment: Softer/ambiguous revenue guide and near‑term growth worries: Some outlets and analysts flagged FY27 revenue/growth guidance as softer than hoped, and Jefferies highlighted a near‑term growth slowdown even as AI adoption builds. Proactive Investors: Jefferies on near‑term slowdown
• Negative Sentiment: Target cuts and underperform notes pressured sentiment: A handful of downgrades/target trims (including Sanford Bernstein’s cut to $194/Underperform and DA Davidson’s move to $200/Neutral) reinforced selling pressure despite the beat. TickerReport / Benzinga: DA Davidson & Sanford Bernstein notes
• Negative Sentiment: Conflicting data points in third‑party summaries (some reports show slight misses on revenue metrics or variable non‑GAAP metrics) added short‑term selling after the print. Quiver/summary: mixed datapoints

Institutional Trading of Salesforce

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of CRM. Groupama Asset Managment grew its holdings in Salesforce by 2.1% during the fourth quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 39,399 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $10,435,000 after purchasing an additional 825 shares during the period. Anchor Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Salesforce by 4.1% in the fourth quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 4,837 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $1,281,000 after purchasing an additional 191 shares during the period. TD Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Salesforce by 89.3% during the fourth quarter. TD Capital Management LLC now owns 212 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $56,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Tempo Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce in the 4th quarter valued at $1,134,000. Finally, Thryve Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the 4th quarter valued at $446,000. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Salesforce Price Performance

The company has a 50 day moving average of $225.28 and a 200 day moving average of $238.59. The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The firm has a market cap of $182.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.90, a P/E/G ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.27.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.05 by $0.76. The company had revenue of $11.20 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.18 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 15.28% and a net margin of 17.96%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.78 earnings per share. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 13.110-13.190 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.110-3.130 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.44 per share. This is an increase from Salesforce’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 9th. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.9%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is 22.16%.

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.