Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Trading Down 3.1% Following Analyst Downgrade

Shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRMGet Free Report) traded down 3.1% during trading on Wednesday after Citigroup lowered their price target on the stock from $200.00 to $188.00. Citigroup currently has a neutral rating on the stock. Salesforce traded as low as $164.75 and last traded at $165.9590. 10,819,240 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 16% from the average session volume of 12,868,646 shares. The stock had previously closed at $171.31.

Several other analysts have also commented on CRM. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Salesforce from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, April 18th. Truist Financial set a $280.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of Salesforce from $260.00 to $200.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. DA Davidson lowered their price target on shares of Salesforce from $235.00 to $200.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Finally, Northland Securities lowered their price target on shares of Salesforce from $267.00 to $229.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have given a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Salesforce currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $278.82.

Check Out Our Latest Stock Analysis on Salesforce

Insider Activity at Salesforce

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

Key Headlines Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Salesforce

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Brighton Jones LLC increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 13.7% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 25,668 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $8,582,000 after buying an additional 3,102 shares during the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 12.6% in the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,827 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $611,000 after buying an additional 205 shares during the last quarter. Bison Wealth LLC increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 9.0% in the 4th quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 2,234 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $747,000 after buying an additional 184 shares during the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 3.7% in the 2nd quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,958 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $807,000 after buying an additional 106 shares during the last quarter. Finally, United Bank increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 5.2% in the 2nd quarter. United Bank now owns 10,198 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $2,781,000 after buying an additional 500 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Stock Down 3.1%

The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $185.67 and its 200 day moving average price is $217.19. The stock has a market cap of $135.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.23 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 issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.05 by $0.76. The firm had revenue of $11.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.18 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 17.96% and a return on equity of 15.38%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior 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, research analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 9.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed 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 a positive change 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.1%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is currently 22.54%.

Salesforce announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback plan on Monday, March 16th that allows the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the CRM provider to reacquire up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Salesforce Company Profile

(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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