Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Trading Up 3.4% – What’s Next?

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM)’s stock price shot up 3.4% on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $174.54 and last traded at $172.5970. Approximately 11,169,209 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 20% from the average daily volume of 13,891,070 shares. The stock had previously closed at $167.00.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on CRM shares. Wolfe Research lowered Salesforce from an “outperform” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. Wall Street Zen upgraded Salesforce from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, June 6th. Wedbush assumed coverage on Salesforce in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. They set an “outperform” rating on the stock. Citigroup upgraded Salesforce from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. Finally, UBS Group assumed coverage on Salesforce in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. They issued an “overweight” rating for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have issued a Buy rating, fourteen have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $254.42.

Salesforce Trading Down 0.9%

The firm has a market cap of $140.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.82, a PEG ratio of 0.93 and a beta of 1.18. The business has a fifty day moving average of $170.64 and a two-hundred day moving average of $191.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.13 by $0.75. The firm had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.05 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 18.72% and a net margin of 18.73%.Salesforce’s revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.58 earnings per share. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 14.060-14.120 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 3.250-3.270 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 11th were issued a dividend of $0.44 per share. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, June 11th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 20.37%.

Institutional Trading of Salesforce

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd grew its position in Salesforce by 3.7% during the fourth quarter. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd now owns 683,790 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $181,143,000 after buying an additional 24,332 shares in the last quarter. SFE Investment Counsel lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 82.7% in the 4th quarter. SFE Investment Counsel now owns 17,394 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $4,608,000 after acquiring an additional 7,871 shares during the period. Secured Retirement Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,004,000. Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth approximately $997,000. Finally, Independent Franchise Partners LLP bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $142,521,000. 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.