Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Sets New 1-Year Low – Should You Sell?

Shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) reached a new 52-week low during trading on Thursday . The company traded as low as $218.29 and last traded at $216.8180, with a volume of 468388 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $227.96.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have issued reports on CRM shares. Citizens Jmp restated a “market outperform” rating and set a $430.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Tuesday, December 2nd. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on Salesforce from $325.00 to $315.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Finally, BTIG Research began coverage on Salesforce in a research note on Tuesday, December 16th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $335.00 price objective for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have issued a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $324.51.

Salesforce Stock Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $198.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.26. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $246.78 and a 200 day moving average of $247.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.98.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, December 3rd. The CRM provider reported $3.25 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.86 by $0.39. Salesforce had a net margin of 17.91% and a return on equity of 14.41%. The business had revenue of $10.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.27 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.41 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. Salesforce has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.020-3.040 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 8th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 18th were given a dividend of $0.416 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, December 18th. This represents a $1.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is currently 22.16%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Parker Harris sold 134,662 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $234.70, for a total transaction of $31,605,171.40. Following the transaction, the insider owned 139,767 shares in the company, valued at $32,803,314.90. This trade represents a 49.07% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Marc Benioff sold 122 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $259.00, for a total transaction of $31,598.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 11,911,571 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,085,096,889. The trade was a 0.00% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders sold 138,677 shares of company stock valued at $32,566,029. 3.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Salesforce

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Salesforce by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 89,843,166 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $23,800,353,000 after purchasing an additional 270,913 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 0.3% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 49,420,657 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $11,732,966,000 after buying an additional 159,739 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 0.6% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 20,873,900 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $5,669,224,000 after buying an additional 114,504 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors boosted its position in Salesforce by 9.4% during the third quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 20,051,119 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $4,753,519,000 after acquiring an additional 1,729,440 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors grew its stake in Salesforce by 159.0% during the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 17,325,206 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $4,106,255,000 after acquiring an additional 10,636,161 shares in the last quarter. 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.