Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Trading Down 1.6% – Should You Sell?

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) shares traded down 1.6% on Monday . The stock traded as low as $181.71 and last traded at $182.7160. 11,077,088 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 18% from the average session volume of 13,438,146 shares. The stock had previously closed at $185.66.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Wall Street Zen upgraded Salesforce from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday. Sanford C. Bernstein reduced their target price on Salesforce from $194.00 to $173.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on Salesforce from $365.00 to $320.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Barclays reduced their target price on Salesforce from $252.00 to $236.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on Salesforce from $210.00 to $200.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have assigned a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $260.85.

Salesforce Trading Down 1.6%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $181.31 and a 200 day simple moving average of $208.71. The company has a market capitalization of $149.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.15, a P/E/G ratio of 1.15 and a beta of 1.16.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.13 by $0.75. The company had revenue of $11.13 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.05 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 18.72% and a net margin of 18.73%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.58 EPS. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 14.060-14.120 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 3.250-3.270 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The company 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 is Thursday, June 11th. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.0%. Salesforce’s payout ratio is currently 20.37%.

Salesforce announced that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan on Monday, March 16th that permits the company to buyback $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the CRM provider to purchase up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Institutional Trading of Salesforce

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Salesforce by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 89,843,166 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $23,800,353,000 after acquiring an additional 270,913 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its position in Salesforce by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 50,080,230 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $13,286,909,000 after acquiring an additional 659,573 shares during the period. J. Stern & Co. LLP grew its position in Salesforce by 24,056.7% in the fourth quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 47,385,511 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $12,552,896,000 after acquiring an additional 47,189,352 shares during the period. Capital International Investors grew its position in Salesforce by 13.3% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 22,721,010 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $6,019,199,000 after acquiring an additional 2,669,891 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Salesforce by 3.8% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 21,782,556 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $5,751,073,000 after acquiring an additional 791,345 shares during the period. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.