Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Shares Up 2% – Should You Buy?

Shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) shot up 2% on Wednesday. The company traded as high as $233.76 and last traded at $229.8420. Approximately 9,698,500 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 30% from the average daily volume of 13,939,063 shares. The stock had previously closed at $225.31.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Phillip Securities lowered shares of Salesforce from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $253.00 to $166.00 in a research note on Monday, June 29th. Susquehanna began coverage on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. They set a “neutral” rating on the stock. KeyCorp lowered shares of Salesforce from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 8th. Scotiabank cut shares of Salesforce from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded Salesforce from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 1st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty have given a Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $275.14.

Salesforce Trading Up 3.0%

The firm has a market cap of $194.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.26. The business’s 50 day moving average is $220.61 and its 200-day moving average is $191.53. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.27 by $2.63. The firm had revenue of $11.35 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.33 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 21.99% and a return on equity of 24.90%. The firm’s revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $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, analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 8th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.44 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 17th. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is presently 16.04%.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Salesforce

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $11,396,844,000. State Street Corp grew its stake in Salesforce by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 50,080,230 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $13,286,909,000 after buying an additional 659,573 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors increased its position in Salesforce by 13.3% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 22,721,010 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $6,019,199,000 after buying an additional 2,669,891 shares during the period. Capital World Investors increased its position in Salesforce by 13.5% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 19,672,684 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $5,211,515,000 after buying an additional 2,347,478 shares during the period. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its stake in Salesforce by 130.2% in the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 12,659,217 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $2,363,096,000 after buying an additional 7,160,302 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Company Profile

Salesforce, Inc (NYSE: CRM) develops cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) software and enterprise applications. Its platform helps organizations manage sales, customer service, marketing, commerce, analytics, data integration and collaboration through subscription-based services.

The company’s product portfolio includes Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Commerce Cloud, Salesforce Platform, Data Cloud and Tableau. Salesforce also offers MuleSoft integration technology, Slack collaboration software and artificial intelligence capabilities through its Einstein platform.