Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Shares Down 3.3% – Should You Sell?

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) shares dropped 3.3% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $219.36 and last traded at $219.7010. Approximately 12,976,042 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 47% from the average daily volume of 8,808,328 shares. The stock had previously closed at $227.11.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CRM has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Canaccord Genuity Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $300.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Sanford C. Bernstein reissued an “underperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, December 4th. Macquarie upped their price objective on Salesforce from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Northland Capmk lowered Salesforce from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have given a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $324.51.

Salesforce Trading Down 3.3%

The stock has a market capitalization of $205.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 1.26. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $249.07 and a 200-day simple moving average of $250.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 0.98.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, December 3rd. The CRM provider reported $3.25 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.86 by $0.39. Salesforce had a return on equity of 14.41% and a net margin of 17.91%.The business had revenue of $10.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.27 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.41 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. Salesforce has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.020-3.040 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 18th were paid a dividend of $0.416 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, December 18th. This represents a $1.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 22.16%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 2,250 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $258.20, for a total value of $580,950.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 11,911,571 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,075,567,632.20. This trade represents a 0.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director G Mason Morfit purchased 96,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 5th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $260.58 per share, for a total transaction of $25,015,680.00. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 2,994,509 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $780,309,155.22. This trade represents a 3.31% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 149,927 shares of company stock worth $35,448,144. Corporate insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Salesforce

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. raised its holdings in Salesforce by 4.0% in the 2nd quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 87,331 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $23,814,000 after acquiring an additional 3,387 shares during the period. Grant Private Wealth Management Inc bought a new stake in Salesforce during the third quarter valued at about $1,458,000. Advyzon Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 57.4% in the second quarter. Advyzon Investment Management LLC now owns 1,884 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $514,000 after purchasing an additional 687 shares during the last quarter. CX Institutional increased its stake in shares of Salesforce by 78.0% in the third quarter. CX Institutional now owns 43,186 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $10,235,000 after purchasing an additional 18,927 shares during the period. Finally, Atalanta Sosnoff Capital LLC increased its stake in shares of Salesforce by 8.5% in the second quarter. Atalanta Sosnoff Capital LLC now owns 206,614 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $56,342,000 after purchasing an additional 16,176 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other 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.