Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Shares Down 3.9% – Here’s Why

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) shares dropped 3.9% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $245.89 and last traded at $249.0250. 15,307,202 shares were traded during mid-day trading, an increase of 9% from the average daily volume of 14,075,713 shares. The stock had previously closed at $259.23.

Key Headlines Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce completed its acquisition of Fin, formerly Intercom, adding an AI customer-agent platform, technical talent and more than 30,000 customers. The deal strengthens Salesforce’s Agentforce strategy and could expand AI monetization. Salesforce Completes Acquisition of Fin
• Positive Sentiment: Agentforce annual recurring revenue reportedly reached $1.5 billion, providing evidence that customer adoption of Salesforce’s AI products is accelerating, even if the current scale suggests gradual rather than explosive revenue growth. Agentforce ARR Hits $1.5B
• Positive Sentiment: A reported partnership with Anthropic, called “Claudeforce,” could combine Claude’s AI capabilities with Salesforce’s CRM and Agentforce products, potentially improving enterprise appeal. Salesforce and Anthropic announce Claudeforce
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce’s recent earnings beat and improved profitability have helped reverse fears that AI would undermine its traditional CRM business, supporting the stock’s recent rebound. Salesforce gives investors a reason to rethink the stock
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce is reportedly discussing a roughly $2 billion acquisition of Listen Labs, an AI-powered customer-research platform. The potential deal could broaden Salesforce’s AI portfolio, but negotiations are preliminary and the price raises execution and capital-allocation questions. Salesforce talks to buy Listen Labs
• Negative Sentiment: Microsoft is targeting Salesforce customers with an AI-powered Dynamics 365 migration tool, increasing competitive pressure and potentially making it easier for enterprises to switch platforms. Microsoft targets Salesforce customers
• Negative Sentiment: Analysts note that Salesforce is now more profitable but also more indebted, while its sharp monthly recovery leaves less room for disappointment. A new AI-native CRM rival, Lightfield, has also raised $47 million to challenge Salesforce.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CRM has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $275.00 price objective (up from $250.00) on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, August 27th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $400.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Wednesday, September 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Salesforce from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 27th. Citizens Jmp reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $315.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a report on Tuesday, August 25th. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt boosted their target price on Salesforce from $222.00 to $266.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 27th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have assigned a Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $266.50.

Salesforce Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 0.84 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The firm has a market capitalization of $200.33 billion, a PE ratio of 22.19, a P/E/G ratio of 1.15 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $197.36 and a 200-day moving average price of $186.34.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.27 by $2.63. The firm had revenue of $11.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.33 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 21.99% and a return on equity of 24.90%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.91 EPS. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 16.670-16.710 EPS and its Q3 2027 guidance at 3.420-3.440 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.65 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 8th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 17th will be issued a $0.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 17th. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. Salesforce’s payout ratio is 16.04%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Salesforce

In other Salesforce news, Director Craig Conway sold 4,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.61, for a total transaction of $1,172,745.00. Following the transaction, 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. 3.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Salesforce

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. California State Teachers Retirement System increased its stake in shares of Salesforce by 13,260.5% during the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 188,085,056 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $29,465,405,000 after acquiring an additional 186,677,290 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in Salesforce during the second quarter worth approximately $11,396,844,000. State Street Corp raised its stake in Salesforce by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 50,080,230 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $13,286,909,000 after purchasing an additional 659,573 shares during the period. J. Stern & Co. LLP raised its stake in Salesforce by 24,056.7% during the fourth quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 47,385,511 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $12,552,896,000 after purchasing an additional 47,189,352 shares during the period. Finally, Capital International Investors boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 13.3% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 22,721,010 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $6,019,199,000 after purchasing an additional 2,669,891 shares during the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Salesforce

Salesforce, Inc is a cloud-based software company that provides customer relationship management (CRM) technology and related enterprise applications. Its platform helps organizations manage sales, customer service, marketing, commerce, data analytics and business operations through subscription-based software and cloud services.

The company’s product portfolio includes Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Commerce Cloud, Data Cloud and the Salesforce Platform. Salesforce also offers Slack for workplace collaboration, Tableau for data visualization and analytics, MuleSoft for application integration, and artificial intelligence capabilities, including its Agentforce platform for building and deploying AI agents.

Founded in 1999, Salesforce is headquartered in San Francisco, California, and serves businesses and organizations across a broad range of industries and geographic markets worldwide.