Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Shares Up 1.8% – Here’s What Happened

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) rose 1.8% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $241.12 and last traded at $237.5670. Approximately 11,464,650 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 18% from the average daily volume of 14,023,848 shares. The stock had previously closed at $233.28.

Key Stories Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Enterprise software stocks rallied even as broader large-cap technology stocks weakened. Salesforce rose alongside Atlassian and Monday.com, while the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF gained about 1%, indicating renewed sector-wide investor interest. Enterprise Software Stocks Rally as Tech Tape Slides
• Positive Sentiment: Several bullish commentaries argue that Salesforce’s Agentforce and broader agentic-AI business are scaling rapidly and that the stock remains undervalued relative to its long-term opportunity. One Wall Street firm reportedly sees potential for roughly 70% upside, while the average analyst target cited by MarketBeat is $275.14 versus recent trading near $239. Salesforce Remains Down Over 12 Months
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce’s investment in Anthropic and other AI startups is being viewed as a potentially valuable strategic position. CEO Marc Benioff said the Anthropic investment could eventually be worth “tens of billions,” helping offset the company’s inability to invest in OpenAI because of its Microsoft relationship. Salesforce’s investment in Anthropic
• Positive Sentiment: Recent fundamentals provide support: Salesforce last reported $5.90 in quarterly EPS versus a $3.27 consensus estimate, $11.35 billion in revenue, and 10.8% year-over-year revenue growth. A director also purchased nearly $1 million of shares, a potential confidence signal. Salesforce insider purchase filing
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce’s reported $25 billion “bet on itself” and its valuation are attracting attention, but investors remain focused on whether capital allocation and AI investments can translate into durable growth. Options imply a wide roughly one-year trading range of $152 to $368, highlighting elevated uncertainty. Salesforce Just Bet $25 Billion on Itself
• Negative Sentiment: Analysts and industry commentators warn that AI could pressure Salesforce’s traditional software economics. Larger customer and product bases may make it harder to adapt quickly, while commentary on Agentforce-related usage-based economics suggests profitability could deteriorate faster than expected. Salesforce AWU Economics Are Worsening

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have weighed in on CRM shares. Morgan Stanley set a $315.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Wednesday, September 2nd. Roth Capital reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $325.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Citizens Jmp restated a “market outperform” rating and set a $315.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Friday, September 18th. DA Davidson set a $225.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, September 17th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, September 17th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty have assigned a Buy rating, fourteen have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $275.14.

Salesforce Price Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $195.52 billion, a PE ratio of 21.66, a P/E/G ratio of 1.08 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 0.84 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $211.53 and its 200 day simple moving average is $189.79.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.27 by $2.63. The company had revenue of $11.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.33 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 21.99% and a return on equity of 24.90%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.91 EPS. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 16.670-16.710 EPS and its Q3 2027 guidance at 3.420-3.440 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.82 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 17th will be paid a $0.44 dividend. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 17th. Salesforce’s payout ratio is 16.04%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 4,176 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 18th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $239.33 per share, for a total transaction of $999,442.08. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 18,748 shares in the company, valued at $4,486,958.84. The trade was a 28.66% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Craig Conway sold 4,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $260.61, for a total value of $1,172,745.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 5,437 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,416,936.57. This trade represents a 45.29% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Corporate insiders own 3.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Salesforce

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd now owns 683,790 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $181,143,000 after acquiring an additional 24,332 shares in the last quarter. Fluent Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the second quarter worth about $2,265,000. Secured Retirement Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Salesforce during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $1,004,000. TAM Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in Salesforce during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $40,945,000. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its holdings in Salesforce by 2.5% in the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 127,739 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $23,846,000 after purchasing an additional 3,125 shares in the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Salesforce Company Profile

Salesforce, Inc is a cloud-based software company that provides customer relationship management (CRM) technology and related enterprise applications. Its platform helps organizations manage sales, customer service, marketing, commerce, data analytics and business operations through subscription-based software and cloud services.

The company’s product portfolio includes Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Commerce Cloud, Data Cloud and the Salesforce Platform. Salesforce also offers Slack for workplace collaboration, Tableau for data visualization and analytics, MuleSoft for application integration, and artificial intelligence capabilities, including its Agentforce platform for building and deploying AI agents.

Founded in 1999, Salesforce is headquartered in San Francisco, California, and serves businesses and organizations across a broad range of industries and geographic markets worldwide.