Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Trading 4.2% Higher After Dividend Announcement

Shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) shot up 4.2% during mid-day trading on Tuesday after the company announced a dividend. The company traded as high as $188.67 and last traded at $185.6410. 15,324,397 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 29% from the average session volume of 11,875,029 shares. The stock had previously closed at $178.16.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have issued reports on CRM. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $375.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Tuesday. KeyCorp reduced their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $400.00 to $300.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $400.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on Salesforce from $365.00 to $320.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Salesforce from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have given a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $283.49.

Salesforce Trading Up 4.0%

The business has a 50-day moving average of $225.28 and a two-hundred day moving average of $238.59. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The firm has a market capitalization of $186.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.53, a P/E/G ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.27.

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

Key Headlines Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q4 results showed a big non‑GAAP EPS beat and double‑digit revenue growth, with Agentforce cited as a key growth driver — the earnings strength is the main bullish catalyst. Salesforce Crushed Earnings by 25% and Still Can’t Get Any Respect
• Positive Sentiment: Management authorized a $50 billion buyback, raised FY30 revenue ambition to ~$63B and increased the quarterly dividend — these capital‑return moves support EPS per‑share upside and signal confidence from the board. Salesforce targets $63B revenue by FY30 while expanding Agentforce and $50B buyback
• Positive Sentiment: Some brokers (e.g., Wedbush) reiterated bullish views and called CRM a long‑term AI winner, supporting a recovery narrative despite the recent sell‑off. Salesforce Stock Climbs After Earnings. Wedbush Calls It ‘Long-Term Winner’ of the AI Boom
• Neutral Sentiment: Wall Street reacted with many price‑target resets — several firms trimmed targets but maintained Buy/Overweight ratings, leaving consensus upside but also a wider target dispersion to watch. Salesforce’s AI Bet Is Paying Off—the Buyback Proves It
• Negative Sentiment: Revenue outlook/near‑term guidance was viewed as soft by some investors — the quarter’s guidance cadence (mid‑year weakness) pressured shares in after‑hours trading. Salesforce tops Q4 estimates but softer revenue guidance pressures shares
• Negative Sentiment: Analysts flagged mixed cloud momentum and cautioned on a near‑term growth slowdown even as AI adoption builds — raises the risk of cyclical softness before the AI inflection fully materializes. Salesforce faces near-term growth slowdown as AI inflection builds, Jefferies says
• Negative Sentiment: Several firms cut price targets (examples include Sanford Bernstein’s move to Underperform and multiple downward adjustments across banks), which can cap near‑term upside until guidance clarity improves. Analyst price target updates

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director G Mason Morfit bought 96,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 5th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $260.58 per share, for a total transaction of $25,015,680.00. Following the transaction, 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Parker Harris sold 134,662 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $234.70, for a total transaction of $31,605,171.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 139,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $32,803,314.90. This trade represents a 49.07% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Corporate insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Salesforce

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Brighton Jones LLC grew its stake in shares of Salesforce by 13.7% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 25,668 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $8,582,000 after purchasing an additional 3,102 shares during the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC boosted its position in Salesforce by 12.6% in the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,827 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $611,000 after buying an additional 205 shares during the last quarter. Bison Wealth LLC boosted its position in Salesforce by 9.0% in the 4th quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 2,234 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $747,000 after buying an additional 184 shares during the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Salesforce by 3.7% during the second quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,958 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $807,000 after acquiring an additional 106 shares during the last quarter. Finally, United Bank raised its position in shares of Salesforce by 5.2% during the second quarter. United Bank now owns 10,198 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $2,781,000 after acquiring an additional 500 shares during the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Salesforce

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.