Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Trading Up 2.3% – Here’s Why

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) shares were up 2.3% during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as $183.35 and last traded at $180.3240. Approximately 9,983,644 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 23% from the average daily volume of 12,885,025 shares. The stock had previously closed at $176.31.

Key Stories Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce announced an expanded collaboration with Cint to deliver next-generation AI-powered support through Slack, reinforcing the company’s push into agentic enterprise workflows and AI-driven automation. Cint and Salesforce to Deliver the Next Generation of AI-Powered Support
• Positive Sentiment: Several analyst- and media-driven pieces highlighted Salesforce as an attractive AI and software value play, with commentary pointing to strong upside potential and expectations that Q1 results may benefit from continued digital transformation and generative AI adoption. Salesforce Likely to Beat Q1 Earnings Estimates: Time to Buy the Stock?
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street price-target articles continue to suggest meaningful upside for CRM, with analysts’ average target implying a large gain from current levels and some firms still keeping bullish ratings. Does Salesforce (CRM) Have the Potential to Rally 53.21% as Wall Street Analysts Expect?
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce granted 64,296 RSUs to 27 employees tied to the Cimulate acquisition; this is routine retention-related equity compensation and is not likely to materially move the stock on its own. Salesforce Grants Equity Awards to Cimulate Under Its Inducement Equity Incentive Plan
• Neutral Sentiment: Investors are also focused on Salesforce’s upcoming earnings release and expected post-earnings volatility, which adds uncertainty but no clear directional catalyst yet. Here’s How Much Traders Expect Salesforce Stock Could Move After Earnings
• Negative Sentiment: UBS flagged a mixed enterprise software spending backdrop and said it sees limited signs of near-term acceleration in bookings, which may be weighing on sentiment into earnings. Salesforce faces tough enterprise software backdrop heading into earnings, says UBS
• Negative Sentiment: Bank of America reiterated an Underperform rating with a $160 target, signaling that some analysts remain cautious on the stock despite Salesforce’s strong market position. BofA Maintains Underperform Rating on Salesforce (CRM)

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CRM has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Truist Financial set a $280.00 price target on Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on Salesforce from $300.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Weiss Ratings lowered Salesforce from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Wednesday. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on Salesforce from $235.00 to $225.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their price target on Salesforce from $200.00 to $188.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have issued a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $274.12.

Salesforce Stock Up 2.3%

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 firm has a market cap of $147.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.14. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $182.26 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $212.98.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.05 by $0.76. Salesforce had a return on equity of 15.38% and a net margin of 17.96%.The business had revenue of $11.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.18 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.78 EPS. The business’s quarterly 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. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 9.71 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 9th were given a dividend of $0.44 per share. This is a boost from Salesforce’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 9th. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.0%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is 22.54%.

Salesforce announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase program on Monday, March 16th that allows the company to buyback $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the CRM provider to reacquire up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other Salesforce news, Director Laura Alber bought 2,571 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 19th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $194.58 per share, with a total value of $500,265.18. Following the transaction, the director owned 9,530 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,854,347.40. The trade was a 36.94% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director David Blair Kirk bought 2,570 shares of the business’s 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 transaction, the director directly owned 13,689 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,664,153.18. This represents a 23.11% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. 3.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CRM. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC purchased a new position in Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth approximately $25,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund purchased a new position in Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Key Capital Management INC purchased a new position in Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Gilpin Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Finally, Legacy Bridge LLC purchased a new position in Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.