Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Trading Down 2.4% – Here’s What Happened

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRMGet Free Report)’s share price traded down 2.4% during trading on Monday . The stock traded as low as $176.31 and last traded at $177.5150. 9,289,891 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 28% from the average session volume of 12,920,664 shares. The stock had previously closed at $181.82.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently commented on the company. DA Davidson cut their target price on Salesforce from $235.00 to $200.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Barclays dropped their price target on Salesforce from $265.00 to $252.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Oppenheimer dropped their price target on Salesforce from $275.00 to $250.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $281.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, BTIG Research reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $255.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a report on Friday, April 17th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have issued a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $279.18.

View Our Latest Research Report on CRM

Salesforce Price Performance

The company has a 50 day moving average price of $186.78 and a 200 day moving average price of $218.91. The company has a market capitalization of $145.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.73, a PEG ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a current ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRMGet Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.05 by $0.76. The company had revenue of $11.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.18 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 15.38% and a net margin of 17.96%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.78 EPS. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 13.110-13.190 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.110-3.130 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 9.71 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 9th were paid a $0.44 dividend. This is an increase 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 payout ratio is 22.54%.

Salesforce announced that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Monday, March 16th that allows the company to buyback $25.00 billion in 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 often a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 2,570 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were bought at an average price of $194.62 per share, with a total value of $500,173.40. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 13,689 shares in the company, valued at $2,664,153.18. This trade represents a 23.11% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Laura Alber purchased 2,571 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 19th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $194.58 per share, for a total transaction of $500,265.18. Following the purchase, the director owned 9,530 shares in the company, valued at $1,854,347.40. This trade represents a 36.94% increase in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. 3.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Salesforce

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CRM. Brighton Jones LLC increased its holdings in Salesforce by 13.7% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 25,668 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $8,582,000 after purchasing an additional 3,102 shares during the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC grew its stake in Salesforce by 12.6% in the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,827 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $611,000 after acquiring an additional 205 shares during the period. Bison Wealth LLC grew its stake in Salesforce by 9.0% in the fourth quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 2,234 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $747,000 after acquiring an additional 184 shares during the period. Sivia Capital Partners LLC grew its stake in Salesforce by 3.7% in the second quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,958 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $807,000 after acquiring an additional 106 shares during the period. Finally, United Bank grew its stake in Salesforce by 5.2% in the second quarter. United Bank now owns 10,198 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $2,781,000 after acquiring an additional 500 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

About Salesforce

(Get Free Report)

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.

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