Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Stock Price Up 2.7% – Should You Buy?

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) traded up 2.7% during mid-day trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $198.63 and last traded at $198.1280. 13,096,080 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 2% from the average session volume of 12,838,873 shares. The stock had previously closed at $192.83.

Key Headlines Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Board-authorized and launched $25 billion accelerated share repurchase — management has started a record buyback that should be EPS-accretive and supports the stock by materially reducing float. Salesforce commences $25B share buyback
• Positive Sentiment: Big AI product momentum: Salesforce is pushing “Agentic AI” (Agentforce, Data Cloud) and teaming with NVIDIA to embed AI agents into workflows — growth drivers that management says are boosting bookings and revenue. Salesforce’s Agentic AI Push: Can It Reaccelerate CRM’s Sales Growth?
• Positive Sentiment: Recent fundamentals: Salesforce beat February quarter EPS and provided FY27/Q1 EPS guidance, giving investors visibility on cash generation that underpins the buyback and AI investment thesis.
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst support: Some firms (e.g., Truist) have reiterated buy ratings and higher targets following the capital-allocation news, which can lift sentiment. Salesforce gets buy rating on capital allocation
• Neutral Sentiment: Smaller/related items: A few peripheral pieces (comparisons with other firms) and industry commentary are circulating but are unlikely to move CRM materially on their own. Unitronix vs Salesforce comparison
• Neutral Sentiment: Unrelated product news in the market (e.g., Covve rebrand) won’t affect Salesforce’s fundamentals. Covve rebrand article
• Negative Sentiment: Leverage and refinancing risk: The $25B ASR was funded with multi-tranche senior notes and a new $6B term loan — the large, debt-funded capital move materially changes Salesforce’s balance sheet and raises refinancing/coupon risk if growth stalls. That risk is a key reason some investors are cautious despite the buyback. Bull case following debt-funded $25B buyback

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have commented on the company. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on Salesforce from $398.00 to $287.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 23rd. Evercore lowered their target price on shares of Salesforce from $360.00 to $340.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. Barclays cut their target price on shares of Salesforce from $265.00 to $252.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $400.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have issued a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $280.21.

Salesforce Trading Down 0.4%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.76. The stock has a market capitalization of $179.50 billion, a PE ratio of 24.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 1.29. The business’s 50-day moving average is $207.96 and its two-hundred day moving average is $234.16.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 net margin of 17.96% and a return on equity of 15.38%. Salesforce’s quarterly revenue was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.78 EPS. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 13.110-13.190 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.110-3.130 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 9th will be given a $0.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 9th. 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%. Salesforce’s payout ratio is 22.54%.

Salesforce announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase plan on Monday, March 16th that allows the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the CRM provider to repurchase up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Salesforce

In related news, Director Neelie Kroes sold 3,893 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $238.70, for a total transaction of $929,259.10. Following the transaction, the director owned 7,299 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,742,271.30. This represents a 34.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 3.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Salesforce

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at about $25,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Key Capital Management INC acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Gilpin Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Salesforce in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Finally, Evolution Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Salesforce during the 2nd quarter valued at $27,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

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.